Essay/Term paper: In the heat of the night

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Position Papers

Response Journal: 1
In The Heat Of The Night


Vocabulary Word: Corpse (noun) - A deceased being.

Vocabulary Sentence: When they arrived, Jane screamed, she was the first one to
notice, the corpse laying on the ground.


Response: This was a very interesting first chapter to this book, that really tells a lot. It starts off in a small town called Wells. You can tell Wells, is a small town, by the way only one officer is used to patrol the city in the evening, if it had been a big town like Vancouver, a whole bunch of officers would have been patrolling the city. Well it starts off, with Sam Wood doing his night patrol, checking out the neighbourhoods, and making sure everything was calm. When Sam is about to finish his last part of his route, he sees a object laying in the middle of the road. When he takes a closer look, he sees it is the corpse of Mr. Mantoli, a file celebrity of the town who was to conduct the big music festival for the town. I liked the way everything was going nice and calm in the chapter, then all of a sudden, wham! A murder pops out of nowhere. I think this book promises to be a good read, with a lot of surprises.
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Response Journal: 2
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Misdialed (adjective) - to dial the wrong telephone number.

Vocabulary Sentence: The blind man screamed in frustration, as he once again Misdialed the phone number.

Response: They finally find a suspect for the murderer of Mr. Mantoli. The suspect is a black man who was caught in the towns railway station. The man was loaded with money. He was well dressed with freshly ironed pants. The police thought that a black man couldn't possibly make that much money so they suspected that the wallet of Mantoli had to have been stolen by this man, too bad that Officer Sam Wood didn't look at the identification. This must have been a really bad time for black people in America. This man who was arrested turned out to be a policeman himself, who was working in Pasadena, California. If this would have happened in real life, I can only imagine the embarrassment of the police officer, Sam Wood, after he found out he had arrested a cop! I think that this story is going to be a rough ride for Virgil Tibbs, because of the way everyone is treating him. I think if Virgil has to face racism through out what ever ordeal he goes through, (I am making this guess because of the fact that I think Virgil is the main character) he is going to crack and retaliate at whoever is making him mad, after all he is only human.

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Response Journal: 3
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Fraternal (adjective) - friendly, brotherly.

Vocabulary Sentence: This will be the first meeting of the Disco Dudes, a fraternal club of disco dancers.


Response: We have now confirmed that the black suspect found at the train station was indeed an officer in Pasadena California. Of course the officers were shocked about this. They thought that the blacks couldn't get decent jobs anywhere, especially a job as a police officer! They are pretty choked about this incident and the whole department thinks badly of the situation. They returned Mr. Tibbs back to the train station and let him go back to where he had to go. As this was happening the another officer caught a man by the name of Harvey Oberst who was found with the wallet of the deceased Mr. Mantoli. He is their number one suspect now and it looks as though he did it. He has been in trouble before for petty robbery and he has been known to hang out with the sixteen year old girl Delores Purdy. I really think this man is the one who killed the Mantoli, I mean how else would he be carrying the dead guys wallet?!? If my little idea is true, then the story would be over by now so this can't be the guy committed the homicide. This novel is becoming more interesting than I originally thought it would be.

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Response Journal: 4
In The Heat Of The Night


Vocabulary Word: Ambidextrous (adjective) - using both hands with equal ease.


Vocabulary Sentence: The man was telling me that it took him four years of hard work to become ambidextrous, I think I am going to start practising to be ambidextrous. Then I will be cool.


Response: At this point in the story Virgil gets called back from being kicked out of the station and has breakfast with the chief. Sam Wood got Mr. Endicott to identify the body of Mr. Mantoli. When they were finished he wanted to speak to the chief about the incident. The man named Harvey Oberst was acquitted because the person who struck the deceased was right handed. When Mr. Endicott was talking to the chief about the murder, Virgil jumped in and started to tell a whole bunch of things about the murder to Endicott. Then when Endicott left, the Chief Gillepsie blasted Virgil for opening his big black mouth. I think that was uncalled for and that the chief might be involved in the whole murder situation, or at least not wanting to let people see that he was jumping to conclusions. I'm starting to get a bad feeling about the chief, he is getting to act a bit strange. That would also explain for how much he yelled at Virgil for blabbing information to people. I really think that this chief is the one who murdered the Maestro. But what would be the motive? Uh-oh, this novel is starting to get me thinking 2:-)

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Response Journal: 5
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Panorama (noun) - a view from every direction.


Vocabulary Sentence: I looked over the panorama, it was beautiful.


Response: I thought it was hilarious the way the chief kicks out our hero, Virgil, and ends up begging for him to come back. The mayor over there called up the Pasadena department and insisted Virgil stay until the case was over. I think Chief Gillespie and the mayor are both involved in some sort of tricky scheme. My suspicions are starting to rise again about the chief committing the murder. But there is absolutely no motive for him at all. To me, the chief seems like the type of person that would perform such an act. I also think that Mantoli's daughter has something to do with it. She sounded a bit suspicious to me. But why would she kill her own dad? Virgil is quite the investigator, he notices details. Those are the sort of things that let you solve murders. If the town was bigger, this wouldn't have been such a big deal. I think that is why the author described the size of the town so well at the beginning of the book. Now I am really starting to like this novel. I wonder if their is a movie out? I would like to see it! I can't wait to find out who really killed Mantoli!

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Response Journal: 6
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Downgrade (noun) - A slope, a decline. Downward.


Vocabulary Sentence: Mark, raced down the downgrade on his brand new skiis.


Response: Now, Virgil finally gets to ask some questions about the murder to Harvey Oberst. He knows little about it and he seems to be clear of all charges so they will let him go now. The killer is still at large and he could strike again at any time. That night when Sam wood was patrolling the town he caught a man trying to get out of town. I think this man could also be a suspect because why would he want to leave town at such an hour. The man was in no condition to be out driving either. The man was out on his way to Atlanta to find a new parade conductor to fill in for Mr. Mantoli. But why is the guy going at such a time, that is what I think is wrong with the situation. This chapter was quite hard to write about because so little happened in it. I think that there will be another murder within the novel. There will need to be something for us to cling onto for more suspense. The last two chapters have seemed to be pretty boring. I thought that they had too little action to them. If I were the author I would make another murder in the story to really get the reader going. I think a totally surprise ending for this story would be if we found out Virgil was the one who committed the murders! Holy Moly! Would that be an ending to a novel or what?


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Response 7
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Astonishing (adjective) - Breath taking, beautiful. Very surprising.


Vocabulary Sentence: Jane's mouth started watering at the site of the astonishing buffet.


Response: In this chapter, Chief Gillespie interviews a man at the hotel. The man said that their was a guy named Kaufmann that came into the hotel at around the time of the murder. The man had a stain on his pants and his only excuse was that, "He was unwise while eating his cherry pie." That could explain for the red stuff on his pants. This man was later released on account of not being guilty. Then they caught another suspect by the name of Mr. Gottschalk. He was in town, passing by at around the time of the murder. He has no sufficient alibi, as far as we know, to prove this though. He was in the town of Wells because he was on his way to the Cape Kennedy Centre. He decided to take his car because he was going to go on a week long vacation with his wife, Mrs. Gottschalk. He was supposedly driving in the night because he didn't want to drive in the extreme heat of the day so he decided to go in the cooler part of the day, night time. In the end, the fact of the matter was that the police didn't have him there by the law, he wasn't made clear of that in the beginning of the interview. One thing that I have noticed is that the author always leaves a big clue at the end of each chapter. That's good stuff, because now I am going to have my eyes peeled when I get to ends of chapters.

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Response Journal: 8
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Outskirt (noun) - The outer part of a town, far from the center of the town.

Vocabulary Sentence: The house was located in the lonley outskirts of the town.


Response: Once again, Virgil does a very smart thing. He went to a black reverend and talked to him about the murder. They talked about the murder and how the youth group could help find out who murdered the man. The reverend said that it was a small miracle that a black man didn't do the murder. This once again goes to show the racial factor of the story, (just incase you didn't know there was one to begin with 2:-). The reverend had a great idea, he could send all the youth group out to look for firewood for the church. The weapon had to be a piece of wood about the size of firewood. This way if the found the piece used by the killer, the could pin it to the man who did it. This in my opinion is a very smart thing to do, but there is a lot of wood out there. I think that the reason that Virgil is trying so hard to find out the murderer is that he wants to show the police that a black men can be just as good at things as white men. If this is the case I can only imagine the pressure he must be under. After he left the reverend's place, he went on the patrol with Sam. As they were going along the route, Sam started to feel like a suspect in the murder. When they were going along, Sam would snap at Virgil for asking so many questions. This is a side of Sam that we have not seen yet. Why is Sam so defensive?

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Response Journal: 9
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Wearily (adjective) - worn out of strength, endurance, and freshness.


Vocabulary Sentence: "Ahh, Captain! I can't dance no more! I have danced all night long! I cannot feel me legs! Please have mercy, Captain!" Said Ezekiel wearily to his captain.


Response: We sure got a lot of stuff going on now! The main thing is that our friend and hero: Virgil Tibbs found the weapon used to kill Mr. Mantoli. As this was happening, Sam Wood was being put in the slammer for the murder of the man. The murder was not done by Sam, as pointed out by Virgil. The reason they thought that the officer did the crime was that he had installed the rest of his six hundred dollar mortgage payment all in one go. The money had to have come from somewhere, but where? The police think that the money was stolen from the deceased, and then used to pay off the mortgage. That would be a good plan to get the money, seeing as how this old man always carried lots of cash. It has been made clear that the chief is a bit scarred of the people who sent him the note about Virgil, that is why he has Sam in the jail because he is desperate to solve the case and get Virgil out of the town. The note was probably sent by the members of the council. Why do they think so badly of Virgil if he is doing so much good for the case? That is why I think that the killer had to be on the council.

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Response Journal: 10
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Captivating (adjective) - To attract by special charm or art.

Vocabulary Sentence: The way the girl could sing proved mighty captivating.


Response: As we near the end of the novel, quite a few things occur. The first thing is that a man named Mr. Purdy came into the police department and told the people a very shocking story. This mans daughter was in the mid stages of her pregnancy and she had obviously been with a man. The father was complaining about how she was seduced and the girl said the offender was the one and only Mr. Wood! This put another burden on the chiefs shoulders, knowing that Sam was guilty. He was looking for one solid piece of evidence that Sam was innocent. But the piece of the puzzle he wanted so badly was not there. Poor old Sam must have been in the pits for the whole day. Then the daughter of Mr. Mantoli came in and talked to Sam about the murder. Sam said that he was innocent of the murder charges. She then told him to look her in the eyes and tell her that he didn't do it. Now that he passed that test he became more happy. But as fast as those happy thoughts came, they then disappeared. He knew that he still had one more charge on his hands. I don't think that Sam could have done it, but we will see what happens in the end now won't we?

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Response Journal: 11
In The Heat Of The Night

Vocabulary Word: Distinctive (adjective) - Special characteristics of an object or being.

Vocabulary Sentence: I new it was him by his distinctive high pitched voice.


Response: The last two chapters all come together will Ralph, that's right Ralph, the night guy at the dinning place being the murderer! What an ending! I am very glad that Officer Sam Wood, the one and only was out of the line of fire and found not guilty for the murder of Mantoli. This books was one of the coolest books I have ever read. I can't wait to see the movie version of it. The only thing about watching the movie is that is now will limit my imagination, and set a preset for all the characters in the novel. So now what I thought of the characters, what they looked like, what they sounded like, and how they acted like will be set. That kind of sucks, but it is cool none the less. I know that this novel is old, but darn is it not cool! I didn't think books this old would be so cool. The author did a really neato spartific job!