There is a scene in the book To Kill A Mockingbird where Dill (who is based on Harper Lee’s buddy Truman Capote) convinces Jem and Scout to watch their father Attitcus do his thing in court. Jem, Scout, and Dill sneak up to the balcony of the courthouse so they can watch the most exciting thing that ever happened in Maycomb, but after a while, Scout says they had to leave because during the cross-examination of Tom Robinson, “Dill had started crying and couldn’t stop; quietly at first, then his sobs were heard by several people in the balcony.”
To Kill A Mockingbird is fiction so we don’t know whether this actually happened, but we do know that Dill and Truman Capote had a lot in common and one of those similarities was the hunt for a story; not just the hunt to know the story, but to tell the story well. Capote’s book In Cold Blood, the Creative Nonfiction piece about the murders of the Clutter family and the men who murdered them, is a story told well and one of the ways Capote does this is by carefully choosing when to allow quotes and when to take facts from the events to create a story. Like the court scene in To Kill A Mockingbird, In Cold Blood is an emotional, confusing story. Not every person could reflect on or speak of what had happened to the Clutter family because it was too painful. So Capote did it for them, just as Scout did for it for Dill while he wept for Tom Robinson.
In a scene where Bobby, Nancy Clutter’s boyfriend, finds out about the murders, Capote doesn’t have him say a word. Instead he writes from the perspective of Mr. Ewalt, and Bobby’s father, Johnny Rupp, the men who tell Bobby about Nancy. “They found Bobby making his bed. He listened to Mr. Ewalt, asked no questions, and thanked him for coming. Afterward, he stood outside in the sunshine.” (72) Capote goes on to describe the landscape of Bobby Rupp’s home, and what he might’ve seen as he stood there for almost an hour. It is Bobby’s father who gives the only direct quote in the paragraph. Even after it was dinner time, Bobby kept still, and to his wife who wants Bobby in for dinner, Johnny Rupp says, “No. I’d leave him alone.” (72)
If Capote had Bobby say this scene, it would not have been as powerful, or detailed. It probably would’ve gone something like this: “I found out about Nancy’s death when my dad and Mr. Ewalt told me.” Bobby wouldn’t have been able to say the rest; he wouldn’t have been able to create a scene of a young boy being robbed of innocence, standing on a hill watching the sun set while his parents watched him. So Capote did it for him.
I know some say Capote took liberties when writing this story, but I think this example is an instance of the writer as a servant. Capote had to speak with Mr. Ewalt, and Mr. Rupp, he would’ve had to stand on the Rupp property and look around. This is a person in a careful search for a story, not just because he wants to know the story, but because he wants to tell it.
In another scene, a group of men come out to the Clutter home to clean up the awful scene. They built a bonfire and burned mattresses, pillows, anything that had blood on it. Capote uses the bonfire as a symbol for the four lives that were taken away, but he does it with the help of Andy Erhart, the man who was closest to the Clutter family. Erhart asks how this could’ve happened to such a good person who had made so much of his life; a somber thought, but what makes it more powerful is Capote’s juxtaposition of Erhart’s thoughts while the fire burns: “But what life, and what he’d made of it – how could it happen, Erhart wondered as he watched the bonfire catch. How was it possible that such effort could overnight be reduced to this – smoke, thinning as it rose and was received by the big, annihilating sky?” (79)
What I think is great about Creative Nonfiction (and where I get into trouble when I’m writing news stories), is that a writer can do more than just use quotes to tell the truth. Erhart’s words about losing a fine family are poignant but paraphrasing what he says while pointing out the smoke rising and disappearing ads another layer to the scene.
I don’t think Erhart would’ve been able to make something out of a fire and his friend’s murder. And if he had, it would’ve come off as forced, and probably artificial. Similarly, Harper Lee could’ve made Dill say why he was crying in To Kill A Mockingbird, and it would’ve sounded fake. So the writers of these stories spoke for their characters; showing that many times, we all need help telling the truth.
An invitation to work with me! I love reading others’ writing and helping them bring their stories out. If you have an essay or manuscript ready to be edited and critiqued, check out my Manuscript and Essay Critique.
Leave a Reply