The effect of the New Journalism on today's society

The sixties seem like interesting and intriguing years in America. Since I was born in the sixties but outside the United States of America, I wanted to explore some of those events, discoveries, tumult, and commotion. The most poignant and heartbreaking moments of the sixties were definitely the assassination of President Kennedy, the assassination of Dr. King Jr., the father of the Civil Rights Movement, and last but not least the Cold War. One movement though I never heard of before I took my online literature class was the movement of the New Journalism. It has nothing to do with wars, nor any assassination, but it undeniably left a print in the history of America, at a time when the public was trying to understand the roots and the circumstances that led this country to those unfortunate events. This movement caught my attention and made me surf the internet to better understand Capote and the rest of the “gang” who specialized in this genre of writing. The non-fiction novel, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, which typified the New Journalism work, was a work of art, a real masterpiece in Capote’s time. The events were real, and the people were real, and the murders were real, but what made this novel a unique novel was the genius of the author who managed to show his readers how to take a new and different look at violence in America. Capote had an objective when he wrote this novel. He simply was trying to revolutionize a mentality that had no mercy on the people who committed certain violent crimes. The idea of a person “is innocent until proven guilty” did not seem to have popularity among the citizens of America during those years. And what made things worse was the fear of Communism. People were being accused of spying for the Soviets and executed based on suspicion, not on facts. Contrary to any true crime novel, the killers in Capote’s novel were the main focus of the author, not the victims. The reason for that was to educate the citizens on how the socio-economic environment during those years could trigger any human being to commit a horrific crime. Poverty, neglect, and a history of family abuse could all lead to some disastrous events. Capote never described the killers as heartless, insensitive people; he never portrayed them to his readers as the villains who deserved the death penalty without a trial, but rather came very close to describe them as the “victims.” Obviously he left that choice to his readers and let’s not forget that pleading insanity was not an option for Dick and Perry given the nature of the crime. At that time people could have been outraged by this plea, since it happened in a serene town, a town that never knew violence till Dick and Perry showed up one night out of nowhere, and with no mercy killed an entire family. But Capote succeeded in making his readers understand reality, a harsh reality that could affect any individual to become a criminal. That was the objective of Capote and the goal of the New Journalism movement that wanted to alter the readers’ views on many news issues of those years, and “crime and punishment” was one particular issue that affected our system and still is to this day.