American Juvenile Rebellion in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

The purpose of this project of thesis is to analyse the American literature classic In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, published for the first time in 1966. The analysis will be focused on some of the most important themes examined by the author, and that reflect and define crucial aspects of 1950s-1960s American society, such as the idea of family, juvenile rebellion and real crime rates. Movies and books have a very specific role in this, providing models to follow and representing every aspects of the new society that adults reject: sexual independence, different clothes, drugs abuse and rebellion in general. The most important texts to understand the Juvenile Rebellion of the Fifties are Leerom Medovoi's Rebels (2005); Douglas Miller and Marion Novak's The Fifties: The Way They Really Were (1977); and Beth Bailey's essay ¿Rebels Without a Cause? Teenagers in the 1950s¿ (1990). To understand Capote's reasons and style is important George Plimpton's interview ¿The Story Behind a Nonfiction Novel¿ (The New York Times, 1966). George Creeger's article ¿Animals in Exile: Criminal and Community in Capote's 'In Cold Blood'¿ (1969) is also important to understand how Smith and Hickock, the two killers, were influenced by their childhoods and by environmental and mental aspects. In the first chapter the American society of the late Nineteen-Fifties has been taken into account, focusing on the theme of the American Dream and how this dream became an utopian view of the society Americans wanted to live in. The second chapter is dedicated to the analysis of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, the two murderers, represent the 'young American rebels': to understand why they found joy in crime it is important to analyse their childhoods, beliefs, mentality and sexualities, taking into account the psychological, environmental and mental aspects too. In In Cold Blood, Capote also refines the genre of the nonfiction novel: the author writes about real facts but mixing them with fictional narrative and invented dialogues or events, adding a linguistic commentary upon them. In this thesis the problem of what acts of rebellion caused in the American society has been addressed, providing different opinions of many authors on how the War affected Americans and changed their way of living.