Project description
My topic is surrounding the question ,to what extent does mental illness play a role in the minds of high profile criminal? My project is based off reasoning and my focus for each subject will be a bit different but one of my main focuses is the reasoning behind why America is so hooked on the stories of high profile murders, serial killer cases and things dealing with true crime. There are people who dedicate a lot of their time to learn and research some of the most gruesome murder cases in history but why? What influenced such an interest in crime? To carry out my project I read a book about a true murder that happened in 1859. The book I read is called In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. There was no motive for the crime which connects to the mental aspect of it. A lot of my research goes back into American history and learning about the major murder stories and events that could’ve had an influence on the engagement America has with it today. Not only that but the impact it has on American culture.
For history I wanted to focus on something a bit different. My research was based off the question, why are Americans so drawn to the idea of serial killers? There is no specific answer to this question but my research proved that this question does indeed have many answers. Things like history, social media and just simple human curiosity has kept the idea of serial killers alive through out the decades. I chose these three reasons as my evidence to this question and then I explained why I believe these are good answers. History has influenced today's world in many ways. An example is the New Jersey sharks attacks. In result of that event , scientists then were pushed to do more research on sharks and today we know a lot more than we did about them 100 years ago. They wanted to understand and learn more just like with serial killers and their stories. People are intrigued by the stories just because of human nature. Hearing about the terrible things that happened in history sparks questions, ideas, inspiration for movies, books, and art. Now with the advanced technology of today things like social media exist and back in history social media is how people would hear about the things going on in the world. Unnecessary attention was brought to cases like the Lindbergh baby murder case causing a panic at the time. Till today serial killers are still huge part of American culture.
In Cold Blood
English
For my english portion of my project I read a true crime story about a murder that happened in 1859. The murder had no motive and through out reading the book I picked up some details about the murderers that helped me answer as to why. For each section I read, I wrote a summary explaining what happened and the main idea of each section. In the slide next to each summary I came up with my own questions to answer. I wrote what caught my attention about each section and why it was important.
The Yellow bird
Art
For my art I wanted to tie English into my idea. The context behind the painting is that the main character of the book , Perry, had an obsession with a yellow bird. Every time he was in distress he would think the yellow bird as his own safe place. In this painting I represented that. I painted Perry sitting against a huge billboard and the big yellow bird watching over him. As a child he would think of this bird as his "savior" in his own head. At night in his dreams the yellow bird would swoop in from the sky to save him from whatever was hurting him. In real life as well even though the bird isn't real he turns to the yellow bird as protection from the real world. In the story it never specifically says that Perry thinks of the bird as his protection but I took quotes from the book that helped me infer this. I explained why I thought each quote proves Perry thinks of the yellow bird as his protection and that was my reasoning for my art portion of this project.
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Quotes from the book with my reasoning for why I believe Perry thinks of the yellow bird as his safe place and protection.