Capote's Literary Experiment

Truman Capote's "literary experiment" is like that of a movie based upon a true story. Some scenes are stressed slightly beyond the bounds of a completely true story, but still follows the true story. This means that one advantage to writing a literary work based on non-fiction events would be that readers who are mostly attracted to and enjoy reading non-fiction works would want to read the work. You could also say that those who are devoted to reading fiction works would not want to read the work because it extends too far into the non-fiction genre, however, since Capote's In Cold Blood is considered a "non-fiction-fiction", it contains attractive elements from both genres, so the reader has nothing to lose by reading In Cold Blood.

A setback for writing a "non-fiction-fiction novel" would be perhaps that the reader is found having to conform to a timeline and a set story to write to, which means that the writer instantly has less freedom. The fiction writer finds himself or herself able to create their own universe for the reader to indulge themselves in. The fiction writer is free to use their imagination to the outermost limits, and to express their thoughts on the page without limitations.

Therefore the non-fiction writer is like a drawer who traces a given picture and embellishes that picture with their artistic skills, whereas the fiction writer is like that of a drawer who begins with a completely blank page. The drawer with the blank page does not have to draw according to a traced picture, they are free to let their pencil roam and to allow their imagination be formed on the paper.

But maybe the writer who is writing according to a valid story will find it helpful to have that story. Many writers who begin writing from scratch without an actual story that happened in reality tend to allow their writing to unintentionally become off topic. Thus the non-fiction writer may use their real story to serve as a series of guidelines, just as the edge of a soccer field serves to keep the players within the area of the field. A true story serves as a container of what may become a chaos of the writing world.

If the fiction writer does not blur the door that leads to our real world and the fiction world, they will become lost in fiction. As long as the fiction writer does not do this, writing fiction does not surpass that of writing non-fiction. Just as the non-fiction writer must still be aware of what it feels like to fly from the world of reality into the world of fiction. The writer who writes in both genres will find themselves benefiting from both, just as Capote had done well in In Cold Blood.

J.D. Salinger and Catcher

Salinger's life does contain many elements of Holden's life, and may relate enough to the story line of Catcher In the Rye for a substantial amount of critics to be convinced that maybe the story is autobiographical of Salinger's life. The fact that Salinger changed many schools, and that his once wife Oona O'Neil left him for Charlie Chaplin, reflects some of the angst that J.D. Salinger portrays from Holden's perspective. But when confronted with these similarities one has to ask if it was Salinger's intent to reflect elements of his life through a literary character, and maybe the answer to this question is evident if one studies Salinger's life along with Holden's.

As previously mentioned, Salinger had been transferred from colleges and when he was finished with high school, he attended the Valley Forge Military Academy to escape his strict mother. This has parallels to Holden because Holden left his school, not for a military academy, but to rome New York City before it was his time to come home:"All of a sudden, I decided what I'd really do, I'd get the hell out of Pencey-right that same night and all. I mean not wait till Wednesday or anything...So what I decided to do, I decided I'd take a room in a hotel in New York-some very inexpensive hotel and all-and just take it easy till wednesday" (51). Unlike Salinger, though, Holden had not only changed schools but had been kicked out of these schools. Salinger himself was never really kicked out of school, but transferred from colleges such as Ursinus College and Columbia University because of Austria being annexed by Nazi Germany. Also Similar to Holden was Salinger's parents, of whom his father did not even want him to pursue an art that he loved: acting and theatre.

Holden, typical teenager?

Holden's emotional fluctuations are a universal experience amongst teenagers but the only thing which sets him apart is the magnitude of his emotions. Holden experiences sexual frustration, sadness, and different forms of confusion throughout his story but just at levels that may vary from the "typical" teen. "It was getting daylight outside. Boy, I felt so miserable...What I did, I started talking, sort of loud, to Allie." (98). Also, what quite evidently sets holden apart from a "typical" teenager is his situation to begin with. A "typical" teenager would not be roaming New York city voluntarily, or be so sad that they are speaking to a deceased sibling. Maybe this would be the case if a typical teen had been placed in Holden's situation, but it is difficult to say that this is a situation that generally fits the "typical" teenager.

But perhaps what makes Holden similar to a good amount of teenagers is his academic apathy. Many kids enjoy venturing off into their own pursuits, whether academic or not, finding joy in intrinsically reading or writing something on their own, not being pressured by a school system to read or write something that is unenjoyable. Like Holden who read Romeo and Juliet on his spare time: " 'I mean I felt so much sorrier when Mercutio got killed than when Romeo and Juliet did'" (111). Therefore he is an intelligent kid but just doesn't apply the time to allow himself to succeed academically, and he is reminded by many older figures that this is so.

One Flew over The Cuckoo's Nest: Film vs. Novel

The movie and the novel of One flew over the cuckoo's nest do generally share the same story line, however, the movie has to fit a huge amount of events into 133 minutes. Because the film contains only a limited amount of time, it narrows the scope of events that occur within the originally written novel. But although this is true, there may have been a couple relevant scenes in the novel that could have made the film a bit more effective, not affecting the time duration of the film. It is true that perchance the producer of the film also wanted to incorporate their own style to the film, not wanting to completely simulate the feel of the novel.

One of the visual elements that changes from the novel to the film is that McMurphy is portrayed different, as Jack Nicholson playing his character. Thus, in the film McMurphy doesn't have red hair or tattoos, and isn't as muscularly defined as the McMurphy in the novel: “Nobody’s sure if this barrel-chested man with the scar and the wild grin is play-acting or if he’s crazy enough to be just like he talks…” (18). A similarity between them though, would be that Jack Nicholson does a great job emulating McMurphy from the novel's personality, being the gambling jokester and taking on the persona of a leader. Therefore McMurphy's overall character is preserved, just not the proper visualization of him.

Also a drastic difference between the novel and the film is the portrayal of chief Bromden. In the novel the reader has a profound insight into the inner workings of chief's mind, and the reader has an intimate knowledge of the metaphor and motif of "The machine". This allows the reader to get to know chief much more well than the viewer of the film. The film creates a void between the watcher and chief by not "letting them in" to chief's mind, which means that the film doesn't express chief's angst and schizophrenia as well as the novel. In the novel we are constantly taken through chief's stream of consciousness and are enriched with a wide range of literary description and devices that the film can't express similarly.

McMurphy vs. Ms. Ratched

Ken Kesey is very subtle in slowly building the tension between Nurse Ratched and McMurphy. The tension gains a peak clarity when McMurphy starts challenging Nurse Ratched's authority by waking up early, singing in the halls, and asking for toothpaste when it is apparent that toothpaste isn't being provided to the patients at the time. "'Hey there, old buddy, what's my chance of gettin' some toothpaste for brushin' my grinders?'"..."He frowns at it, then takes a quick check where's the other two black boys just in case, and tells McMurphy they don't open the cabinet till six-forty-five. 'It's a policy' he says."(84) McMurphy then proceeds by dunking his toothbrush directly into the black boy's soap powder for a substitute of toothpaste: "'Well, I generally use paste, but' "-McMurphy runs his hands down in the powder and swishes it around and pulls it out and taps it on the side of the can-' but this will do fine for me.'" (85).

Also after that situation passes Nurse Ratched makes her way into the hall to find McMurphy roaming around with just a towel on: " 'Good morning, Miss Rat-shed! How's things on the outside?' 'You can't run around here-in a towel!'"(87). Then chief bromden notices after all that McMurphy was wearing shorts underneath his towel the whole time: "He finally winks at the nurse and shrugs and unwraps the towel, drapes it over her shoulder like she was a wooden rack. I see he had his shorts on under the towel all along." (90).

Therefore it's clear that McMurphy contains an irresistable edge to him because he's the only one who has gained privileges for the patients and challenged nurse Ratched's tyrannical superiority. It seems as though McMurphy will eat away at Nurse Ratched's conscience and win.