“a natural killer”—absolutely sane, but conscienceless,and capable of dealing, with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows

Perry described amurder, telling how, simply for “the hell of it,” he had killed a colored man inLas Vegas—beaten him to death with a bicycle chain.

But that’s all I saw. Only now when Ithink back, I think somebody must have been hiding there. Maybe down amongthe trees. Somebody just waiting for me to leave.”

They always quibbled, but actually they were very close—closer than mostbrothers and sisters.

he following Monday, while giving evidence prior to taking a lie-detector test,

“Remember, Dick? All that talk about getting a boat? I was thinking—we could

Seaports were hisheart’s delight—crowded, clanging, ship-clogged, sewage-scented cities, likeYokohama, where as an American Army private he’d spent a summer during theKorean War

It was the first payment on aforty-thousand-dollar policy that in the event of death by accidental means, paiddouble indemnity

carrying cash. “That’s the way I do business. When those tax fellows comepoking around, canceled checks are your best friend.”

hat he would not now be loitering outside a hospital waiting forDick to emerge with a pair of black stockings

himself. And only Willie-Jay had ever recognized his worth, his potentialities,

Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occasion.

As usual, Willie-Jay understood; disheartened but not disenchanted, he hadpersisted in courting Perry’s soul until the day of its possessor’s parole anddeparture, on the eve of which he wrote Perry a farewell letter, whose lastparagraph ran

How was it possible that so gifted a man had wound up inLansing?

The reason was thatseveral weeks earlier he had learned that on Thursday, November 12, another ofhis former cellmates was being released from Kansas State Penitentiary atLansing, and “more than anything in the world,” he desired a reunion with thisman, his “real and only friend,” the “brilliant” Willie-Jay.

Someothers were the number 15, red hair, white flowers, priests crossing a road,snakes appearing in a dream

Leaving the varnish to dry, he went on to another chore—one that took him out-

Kenyon doubted it; hecould not conceive of ever wanting to waste an hour on any girl that might bespent with guns, horses, tools, machinery, even a book.

Kenyon resembled neither of his parents physically; his crewcut hair was hemp-

It was a hundred yards long—quite enough for twelve.

No. Because the plan was Dick’s, andfrom first footfall to final silence, flawlessly devised.

By midafternoon the black Chevrolet had reached Emporia, Kansas

His eyes singled out a chubbyJapanese woman surrounded by four chubby Japanese children. “

or, indeed, for any pastime thathe felt did not “accomplish something

but who wants NewYork? Good neighbors, people who care about each other, that’s what counts.

Scrubbed, combed, as tidy as two dudes setting off on a doubledate, they went out to the car

Perry, too, had been maimed

Dick stripped to his briefs was not quite the same as Dickfully clothed

on this final day of her life,

“Wilma,” she said, “I’ve beenlistening to you, Wilma. All of you. Laughing. Having a good time. I’m missingout on everything. The best years, the children—everything. A little while, andeven Kenyon will be grown up—a man. And how will he remember me? As akind of ghost, Wilma.”

when her husband was off on one of his business journeys she wascontinually expected, in his absence, to supply snap judgments concerning theaffairs of the farm, and it was unendurable, a torment. What if she made amistake? What if Herb should be displeased? Better to lock the bedroom doorand pretend not to hear

Some years earlier Mrs. Clutter had traveled to Wichita for two weeks of

he only daughter of a prosperous wheat grower named Fox

“Forgiveme, dear. I’m sure you’ll never know what it is to be tired. I’m sure you’llalways be happy . . .”

“No, they don’t need me,” she repeated

ancy and her protégée, Jolene Katz, were also satisfied with their morning’s

“ ‘Known.’ But what did you say? Finally?”

instrument

upposedly superiorone in Garden City

shining chestnut hair (brushed a hundredstrokes each morning, the same number at night) and her soap-polishedcomplexion,

practically run that big house” and be a straight-A student, the president of herclass, a leader in the 4-H program and the Young Methodists League, a skilledrider, an excellent musician (piano, clarinet), an annual winner at the county fair(pastry, preserves, needlework, flower arrangement)—how a girl not yetseventeen could haul such a wagonload, and do so without “brag,

As usual, the devil was in Kenyon. His shouts kept coming up the stairs:“Nancy! Telephone!

totallymasculine.

Dick was veryliteral-minded

Three aspirin, cold root beer, and achain of Pall Mall cigarettes—that was his notion of a proper “chow-down.”Sipping and smoking

And Mr. Clutter, expressing sympath

Autumns reward western Kansas for the evils that theremaining seasons impos

a circumstance that did notshrink his social circle as much as might be supposed

As for the interior, there were spongy displays of liver-colored carpetintermittently abolishing the glare of varnished,

Bobb

Ordinarily, Mr. Clutter’s mornings began at six-thirty

Herbert William Clutter,

consider themselves “born ga

grain elevators

four shotgun blasts that

hiswife

The more you practice the process of articulat-ing problems, posing questions, and identifying the stakes, and themore you cultivate your awareness of problems, the more successfulyou will be at writing academic papers and handling life’s complexi-ties.

While it’s unlikely that you’ll ever have to write for your life as PaulSheldon did in the movie Misery,

Once you’ve identified an author’s problem and question,you’ll have a better handle on the rest of the text.

Much of what you read as a college student is unfamiliar incontent and form and requires a more attentive, deeper read

Each of these texts offers a useful model for how to present richproblems, pose fruitful questions, and articulate what is at stake in aninquiry.

Organ Trading:Supply and Demand Meets Morality

You may have noticed that the title of the article simplifiesthis question into a snappy title by posing it as a yes/no question, butthe essay pursues a fruitful “why” question

smaller problems and questions are worth pursuing,and pursuit of these smaller questions in our everyday life can help uschip away at larger problems

add a bit of in-formation in a specific corner of knowledge, or they provide us with anew way of seeing or thinking about something.

Considering what is at stake not only helps testthe question’s potential, it also leads in the direction of an argument.

It issimply that they do not work in the context of a one-semester course.

I genuinelybecame troubled by it and worried I that I should take it down.

Practice, Practice, Practice

in order to motivate yourselfand interest your reader, it is essential to identify why the question youor your teacher has posed is worth pursuing

Finally, know that some questions will lead you down dead endsand others will bear fruit.

make a list of questionseach problem raises for you

tensions

1. Noticing;2. Articulating a problem and its details;3. Posing fruitful questions;4. Identifying what is at stake

While there is no direct or indirect mention of problems in this par-ticular assignment, your process and your product will benefit from afocus on a specific problem.

While it is possible that your high school teacher did notexpect you to develop an argument in a compare and contrast essay,your college professor expects you to do so, whether or not the assign-ment explicitly says so.

You can cultivate and take advantage of this mode of thinking anytime you have a paper to write

Problems are an expected part of life, and our ability to deal withthem can help determine our personal and professional success

Misery suggests that even a prolific writer like King, whohas written screenplays, novels, short stories, and essays for the pastthirty-five years, finds writing difficult, even painful.