2.c | MFG
Engelsk
Los Angeles has always been a city of contradictions. Things are not what they seem like in the big city that is part of wild nature with hills and desert and yet is the emblem of modern life with endless freeways and cars moving in all directions. Los Angeles is the city of dreams where stars are made in Hollywood, but also the place of poverty, corruption and crime. The many faces of Los Angeles are captured in Truman Capote’s narrative essay “Hollywood”. The essay was published in the collection Local Color from 1950. The story is about Truman Capote’s holiday trip to Hollywood in December. The story takes place in a plane, where Truman Capote is on his way to L.A. He is sitting besides Thelma, a young, black, woman, who are about to make a living in Hollywood, and hopefully becomes famous. They accompany each other for some time, until Thelma is dropped in the middle of Hollywood by the taxi driver. Later he visits the famous Miss C. through their mutual friend Nora Parker.
Some time after the visit, Truman Capote feels the need for some juicy fruit, which he saw on display some time ago. But he quickly discovers that the displayed fruit is plastic.
It is getting close to Christmas, but it doesn’t feel like it. Truman Capote is waiting for the bus, and meets P, a lady friend of his, who offers him a ride home. They buy a present for A, and drives to his home. And here the story ends with A’s father saying: “merry Christmas, children”.
In the story “Hollywood” Truman Capote is focusing on how the outer picture of L.A is shown, and how it can be a dangerous thing. Truman is a narrative speaker in the story, so we follow him throughout the whole story. We get to see everything from his point of view, both as a writer and as the narrator of the story. Hollywood and L.A is pictured like everything is pretty, humble and perfect on the outside, but deep down the city is mostly drowned in outcasts from the war, people who are