My first blog post from part 1 of In Cold Blood addresses Holcomb’s immediate reactions to the murders. There was a lot of fear, distrust, and grief. Now, after finishing the novel, the feelings of the town about five or six years after the murders were brought to my attention again. Capote, telling about Dewey, writes, “The dream of settling on his farm had not come true, for his wife’s fear of living in that sort of isolation had never lessened.” (p.341) The fear created by the sudden murders of the Clutter family never completely left Mrs. Dewey. Sue Kidwell, now a junior at the University of Kansas, says, “Nancy and I planned to go to college together. We were going to be roommates. I think about it sometimes. Suddenly, when I’m very happy, I think of all the plans we made.” (p.342) Sue seems to have gotten over her grief and is content with her life, but she continues to think of how life would have been different if her best friend Nancy Clutter was still alive. The reader also learns that Bobby Rupp, Nancy’s old boyfriend, is now married. Bobby was overwhelmed and devastated by the murders, but not even five years later he was happily married. The murdering of the Clutter family shook up the stable little town of Holcomb. Once over the initial excitement, the people were able to settle down again. But for some, the fear and grief will never completely die away.
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I don't know (obviously) because I wasn't in alive in the 60's, but I feel like the rest of America was waiting to see how Holcomb would really be affected by this. This seemed to be the first of any kind of violence associated with "American Dream" "White picket Fence" America.
ReplyDeleteBefore this it seemed that murder was restricted only to cities. This is still the same in a sense that in a city like Cleveland (especially), a murder would kind of roll off the back without much change. (Tony Sowell's "House of Horror" wasn't actually that surprising).
For Holcomb, however, there was a lot of pressure to try to remain the same despite the murders. While I'm sure many inhabitants' instinct was to become much paranoid and untrustworthy, they tried to keep it as "white Bread" as possible.
You know that Mr. Dewey, Susan Kidwell, Bobby Rupp and the rest of Holcomb will never be the same, but they sure try to make it seem that way. Mr. Dewey visits his father's grave instead of mourning over the Clutters, Bobby Rupp has married (although he has to still think about Nancy), and Susan Kidwell has gone on to college, although she admits that, "Nancy and I planned to go to college together. We were going to be roommates. I think about it sometimes. Suddenly, when I'm very happy, I think of all the plans we made"(343).
It was clear that Holcomb was trying to save face after the murders. While this was not actually honest, it proved that a little, nice town actually could get over a terrible murder like the clutters.