IFrancois Villion Connection (Kevin)

The quote in French at the beginning of the book, the crucible is from the French poet Frances Villon’s Poem "Ballade des pendus"("Ballade of the hanged men") who was also known as a thief, killer, barroom brawler, and vagabond. The famous poem that the author, Truman Capote used in the book, translates to,

Brothers that live when we are dead,

Don’t set yourself against us too

If you could pity us instead,

Then God may sooner pity you.

I believe that Truman Capote used this specific poem because it relates to the Story due to the context of it. The title of the poem signifies that  whoever wrote it is talking from the position of a person that committed a crime that resulted in them being hung.

Another possible reason why Truman chose to use was because Frances Villon was a criminal like Dick and Perry and , even though not put to the death sentence know how it feels to have everyone look at you as a horrible person.

Truman had become friends with the killers and probably wouldn’t want people to think poorly of them after they were put to the death sentence. It is saying that instead of  going against the killers like the rest of the world, try to look at them as people who made a big mistake and if you would pity them then god will return the favor when you are put in a situation where everyone’s pointing the finger at you based on a bad decision you have made.