In Cold Blood, the American Dream and Loss of Innocence

Hey, you, dearest reader, searching for an essay to write. Id just like some love, just some respect, you know nothing big, other than a thank you, thats all. So when you finish writing, just remember thanks mysterious keyboard writer, you saved my ass. With out further a due, my essay: The American Dream In the non-fiction novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, four horrific murders shock the small, innocent town of Holcomb, Kansas, the murders all occur on one night killing an entire family. Before the killings, the town felt like a family. The citizens of Holcomb were seen as good people, innocent and free of worry. However, after the Clutter murders take place, a community that seems so tightly knit quickly dissipates. The murder†¦show more content†¦Herb Clutter has risen from modest beginnings to becoming a ranch owner with a comfortable lifestyle. He encapsulates the concept of the self-made man, which is a central theme in the American dream.† Herb Clutter shows that the aspiration of becoming a self-made man can fall apart at any moment. The murder of the Clutter family serves as physical proof that in our society, a utopia does not exist. Every citizen in Holcomb wants success. In fact, Mr. Clutter surrounds himself with many other people who want to succeed. For instance, the Ashidas, a Japanese immigrant family, work tirelessly to gain respect from the citizens of Holcomb. Mrs. Ashida involves herself with the Four H club, Mr. Ashida aspires to own his own farm. Their children work hard in school and feel proud of their parents. The first time we see Mrs. Ashida assert her pursuit of the American Dream is when she mentions to Mr. Clutter a gift she plans to buy for her husband: two new gold fillings. Mr. Clutter and Mrs. Ashida then proceed to discuss how her family wants something better. â€Å"The farm here, the people we’re working for – Hideo thinks we could do better,† (22). Human beings never find themselves completely content. As humans we feel a notion to go gather more and more for ourselves, an intense desire for success. This desire has formed over time, becoming ingrained, when a prehistoric man needs to gather more food for his family so theyShow MoreRelatedThe Shack, a Discussion of Symbolism1504 Words   |  7 Pagesof his being to where his entire world is impacted by its presence.   It haunts his dreams, and leaves him in a state of almost perpetual fatigue and anguish.   It can be argued that this state was brought on solely because of his daughter’s disappearance; however that may just be one of the factors contributing to the â€Å"Great Sadness†. Mack’s â€Å"Great Sadness† seems to come more from his loss of faith because of the loss of his daughters which could imply that both of these are the causes of his griefRead MoreAnalysis Of The Story Sudanese Refugee Valentino Deng1534 Words   |  7 Pagesaccomplished primarily because Valentino provides a personal face to the tragedy. Many people have heard about the civil war in Sudan, but find it hard to understand the severity of the situation because it’s so far away and not often referenced in American culture or media. Valentino brings a personal touch to the crisis, from his adventure through the desert to his final destination in the United States. He tells stories of his friends and family tinged with personal experiences that the audienceRead MoreAtticus, Scout, And Jem Finch2314 Words   |  10 Pages On the top wrung of the ladder, in most societies at the current place and time, are the wealthy, white people. Southern Alabama in the early 1930’s was and extremely prejudice time and place for anyone but white people, but especially African Americans. This being said, even though the black people of the county were much more kind and seemed to have more class than many white people, they were still beneath them simply because of the fact that they were black. Atticus, Scout, and Jem Finch areRead More The Road Essay2021 Words   |  9 PagesRoad Named one of the four major novelists of his time, Cormac McCarthy has won numerous awards such as the National Book Award, National Book Critics Circle Award, and the 2009 PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Achievement in American Fiction, which places him in the highest rank of American literature. His tenth and latest novel, The Road (2006), known as his most traumatic yet intensely personal work, has won the Pulitzer Prize for Literature Award in 2007, as well as the James Tait Black Memorial PrizeRead MoreGreat Gatsby5612 Words   |  23 Pages On a literal level, she always dressed in white and even drove a white car. More important, she remembers her youth as a time of innocence and charming simplicity, in contrast to the tawdry existence she has in the present. 8. Why does Gatsby reach out to the water? He is so near and yet so far. It has taken him five years to come this close to his dream, so close that he can reach out his arms to the light across the bay. This image remains throughout the novel – Gatsby stretching outRead MoreBrief Survey of American Literature3339 Words   |  14 PagesBrief Survey of American Literature 1. Beginnings to 1700 Great mixing of peoples from the whole Atlantic basin Bloody conflicts between Native Americans (or American Indians) and European explorers and settlers who had both religious and territorial aspirations - Native American oral literature / oral tradition - European explorers’ letters, diaries, reports, etc., such as Christopher Columbus’s letters about his voyage to the â€Å"New world†. - Anglo (New England) settlers’ books, sermonsRead MoreThe Genre of Stokers Dracula Essay6296 Words   |  26 Pagesmist, he (Dracula) appears, his pointed teeth gleaming as he edges towards his victims. This is Count Dracula the King of the Un- dead - the dreaded vampire. Centuries old, he walks the earth to quench his insatiable thirst for the blood that gives him life. STYLE The style of the author is simple, in a narrative manner the story of Dracula unfolds. Stoker is almost autobiographical in context, where he projects himself into all of the major characters of DraculaRead MoreShort Summary of the Great Gatsby11203 Words   |  45 Pageshis mothers family was, in Fitzgeralds own words, straight 1850 potato-famine Irish. As a result of this contrast, he was exceedingly ambivalent about the notion of the American dream: for him, it was at once vulgar and dazzlingly promising. It need scarcely be noted that such fascinated ambivalence is itself typically American. Like the central character of The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald had an intensely romantic imagination; he once called it a heightened sensitivity to the promises of life.Read MorePlace8569 Words   |  35 Pageson each side of the treadle, stood next to the window and the great coal-black stove which up to my last year in college was our main source of heat. By December the two outer bed-rooms were closed off, and used to chill bottles of milk and cream, cold borscht, and jellied calves feet. Paragraph Two: 1. The kitchen held our lives together. 2. My mother worked in it. She worked all day long. We ate almost all meals in it. We did not have the Passover seder inRead MoreChildrens Literature13219 Words   |  53 Pageschoose for themselves. This gap between childrens and adults attitudes toward childrens literature is often revealed in the difference between the top-selling childrens books, which are frequently series books, and the books chosen annually by the American Library Association as the outstanding picture book (winner of the Caldecott Medal) and the outstanding book of prose (winner of the Newbery Medal). Despite the problems defining â€Å"children’s literature,† we can identify two recurring themes in tracing