Teach This #3: In Cold Blood

Teach This #3: In Cold Blood

Which text: In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

            Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood gives readers an insight on the Clutter family murders in Holcomb, Kansas. The novel opens up describing the last day of the Clutter family. Herb Clutter (father) checks around his farm which has brought his family much wealth. Bonnie Clutter (mother) suffers from depression and lays around the house with her children. Nancy Clutter (one of the teens) talks about her banned Catholic boyfriend to her friends and helps out around the house. Kenyon Clutter (another teen) works hard in the family’s basement making a chest for his older sister, Beverly, as a wedding gift. The family lives a traditional life; they go to church every Sunday and work hard to help Bonnie battle her post-partum depression. The novel switches back and forth in the beginning between the Clutter family and the same day of the murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. They go about their day eating breakfast, tuning up the car for their getaway to Mexico after the robbery/murder, and gathering final supplies to follow through with their devious plan.

            The story is told through Special Investigator Alvin Dewey. He is the lead investigator on the murder case and has deep motivation to bring justice to the Clutter family. It is through Floyd Wells, former employee of Herb Clutter and cellmate of Dick Hickock, that the investigator learns he knows who committed these crimes and the motive behind the killings. After a hunt ensues to find Dick and Perry, they are finally found in Las Vegas. Both men give the gruesome details of the murders and they are taken to court where they are placed on Death Row.

Why this text:

            Many students might have apprehension about reading a non-fiction text due to the perceived dryness of the material. This common misconception about non-fiction text can be proved wrong through a thrilling novel like In Cold Blood. In our text by Butcher and Hinton, they point out the differences between fiction and non-fiction based off four criteria (Butcher & Hinton 273).

      

	Fiction	Non-Fiction
Purpose	Pleasure	Information
Structure	Read from beginning to end	Read in parts or pieces
Language	Specific to the characters	Specific to the subject
Content	Created	Researched

   

Typically speaking, non-fiction books might lack in the luster students want to dive into when reading a novel. Informational text that are heavily researched based can be complex and hard to understand. However, I find In Cold Blood to be both informational yet plot-driven to keep students engaged in a story set in 1959. While the topic is devastating and tragic, students will find themselves on the edge of their seats as they learn more information about the murderers, how the crime went down, and the ultimate fate of Dick and Perry. In Cold Blood has many great facts that are provided through Investigator Dewey’s experience on the case, but some creative situations have been added (speculation, but quite possible) to keep the reader engaged in the characters. These small details help the reader have a connection with the Clutter family before their demise and maybe even some sympathy for the killers due to their negative upbringing.

            While this text seems like a 343-page episode of Law and Order: SVU, many complex topics come up that students would be able to analyze. Gender roles and expectations run rampant in the Clutter family, and even sometimes become reversed. For example, we get a look into Bonnie Clutter’s depression and how it affects the family when “Mr. Clutter had of necessity learned to cook…[he] enjoyed the chore, and was excellent at it” (Capote Chapter 1). Considering the time period, women were still expected to keep house. However, Mr. Clutter is confident in his masculinity that he takes on this role to provide even more for his family and help his ill wife. This pushback is important for students to see and analyze, especially when compared to the gender roles Perry Smith portrays and his seemingly homoerotic attraction he has towards Dick Hickock due to his “totally masculine” persona (Capote Chapter 1). Feminine roles could also be analyzed through the absence of Mrs. Clutter being a good wife and mother. Or even how Nancy Clutter, who was described as “always in a hurry, but she always [had] time. And that’s one definition of a lady” (Capote Chapter 1). These stereotypes exist in the novel and challenge the norms of society during the late 1950s-early 1960s. Students’ ability to “solve problems and think analytically” (Butcher & Hinton 280) which are key components in Common Core Standards are skills that will help them be successful in post-secondary education. These gender roles are just one of many concepts that could be taught within a classroom. Through this novel, non-fiction texts can be expanded to be interesting and fun rather than bleak and dense.

How to teach this text:

1. KWLQ Chart

            As an ongoing assignment throughout the course of reading In Cold Blood, I would have the class create a KWLQ (Know, Want to Know, Learned, and Questions) Chart to help organize ideas the findings. At the beginning of the unit, before even reading the novel and after having a large blank chart up and ready to fill in, I would ask students to tell me what (if anything) they know about the Clutter murders. Students could read the quick description on the novel to gain a better idea about Questions they might have to add to the chart, or even specifics they Want to Know. From the Want to Know section, we would make sure as a class to address those questions and add those findings to the Learned section of the graphic organizer. This chart would be added to daily for any and all sections. Students will be encouraged to think while reading, and revise ideas as they learn new information. This project helps students see the learning process and how to ask questions while reading a text. It will create more active readers in the classroom as they look for answers and think about what might be going on and why.

2. Pairing In Cold Blood to movie rendition of the novel

            Part of Common Core is the ability for students to pair a novel to the movie depiction. For this activity, students would first read In Cold Blood and go through countless activities and class discussions. After finishing the novel, students would watch the movie In Cold Blood for a few days in class. Students would then work in small groups to create some kind of graphic organizer (such as a Venn Diagram) to compare and contrast the movie to the novel. Students would also be required to note how characters are depicted on the screen and how that varies from what students might have originally believed them to look or act like. From here, students would analyze why specific characters would look or act a certain way. They could ask questions about why the director would alter details or change the storyline (if indeed there are major discrepancies) and how that works or doesn’t work.

3. Find the Clues

            For this activity, I would set up different clues around the classroom and school (assuming it is closed campus) that students would have to find and piece together with other clues. An example of this might be a picture of a shotgun, and once found, students would have to find the correlating part of the novel that goes with the shotgun (such as a characterization of Dick Hickock or Perry Smith). Students will have to focus on the small details of the novel—which will require them to do close readings—to really understand these clues they are searching for. It will also imitate them searching through a crime scene to find clues that leads them to the killers. This activity would be done in a single class period and in pairs or small groups. Students would have free range of the classroom. Each clue could have multiple answers, which would further make students work together to find them all. This activity would showcase their knowledge of the text and their attention to small details.

References:

Bucher, Katherina and KaaVonia Hinton. Young Adult Literature: Exploration, Evaluation, and         

            Appreciation. 3^rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.

Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Random House, 1965. Kindle ebook file.