| Truman Capote is one of the famous writers in the South of the United States in the20 th century,whose unique writing style has a profound impact on later generations.Capote’s full-length novel In Cold Blood is not only the peak of his literary career but one of the representative non-fiction novels.The novel manages to blend the artistry of fiction with the authenticity of journalism,presenting a shocking murder case in compelling language.In Cold blood has sparked a heated debate when it was published.According to the studies of In Cold Blood at home and abroad,scholars have mostly focused on the genre of non-fiction and creation style of the novel.Besides,they have mainly studied the novel from the perspective of psychoanalysis.However,few scholars have studied the identity of the protagonist Perry in the novel from the perspective of violence.Therefore,this thesis tries to explore the relationship between the violence writing in the novel and the identity crisis that Perry has undergone based on the space of his growth with the help of the violence triangle theory put forward by Johan Galtung.Thus the thesis attempts to analyze the identity crisis of Perry in the double space of family and society under the influence of direct violence,structural violence and cultural violence,and explore the reasons for his transformation from the victim of violence to the perpetrator,the failure of his identity construction,and the complete alienation into “the other” in order to present the various hidden problems existing in the American society.This thesis is divided into six chapters.The first chapter gives the brief introduction of the writer Truman Capote and his work In Cold Blood,summarizes the current research situation of domestic and foreign scholars on In Cold Blood,presents the significance and research methods of doing this research topic,and finally traces the concept of violence and summarizes the violence theory of Johan Galtung.The second chapter mainly analyzes the direct violence Perry suffers from his parents and sister in the family space,which throws Perry into a strong personal family identity crisis.The third chapter analyzes structural violence Perry suffers.As a mixed-blood of Irish and American Indian,Perry becomes the product of the double ethnic identity,which makes him become the marginalized American Indian ethnic minority as well as second-class citizens in the social space,thus forming a strong social identity crisis under structural violence.The identity crises in family and society become the internal causes which force Perry to change from the victim into the perpetrator of violence.The fourth chapter explores the external causes of Perry’s transition from victim into the perpetrator from the cultural ideology,pointing out that the distortion of the American dream and the inundant attitude towards gun violence have given rise to the extreme behavior of Perry.Moreover,Perry’s way of counterviolence at the same time,expresses his rebellion towards the mainstream American society,ultimately descending to “the other” of the society on a path of delinquency.In the end,Perry is still subjected to the violence in the space of nation in America,becoming a total victim of the mainstream American society,forming an endless cycle of violence.The fifth chapter explores Capote’s concern about the social problems in the United States and his negative views of violence revealed through his violence writing.The final conclusion states that Perry’s identity crisis actually shows that the lowest class of the Americans still struggled around World War II under all kinds of violence,the people at the bottom were still in a difficult situation,and the social status of ethnic minorities was in urgent need of improvement.It also shows Capote’s view of violence,counterviolence is not an effective way to resist violence,on the contrary,from violence to non-violence symbolizes the hope of social development. |
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