Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is the first ever of the “true-crime” genre that sparked a literary revolution. Capote collected a tremendous amount of information to write In Cold Blood and spent the better part of six years interviewing these convicted murderers and learned them better than anyone else. In Cold Blood tells the story of the Clutter family and the two men who murdered them in the dead of night. Capote wrote this book with the intention of making it a nonfiction novel, meaning that while the events are true, it also has some components of a story. The fact that it is a story and such an entertaining story haunts readers because being entertained by a murder that genuinely happened is something that would make anyone question their …show more content…
One of the many ways Capote adds to the disturbing nature of In Cold Blood is when he uses traditional story-like elements to make the entire situation more whimsical and less real. One example of this is at the beginning of the novel when Capote describes the events of the lives of both the Clutter family and the murderers. He switches between their lives to lay out the timeline leading up to the murder; each section leading up to the event in question gets progressively shorter, thus building suspense for what the readers know is going to happen to this innocent family. This way of writing is entertaining to readers because of this suspense and situational irony, while in real life, Dick and Perry were just small-time crooks who wanted money and Herb Clutter happened to be the richest man in town. Similar to this is after the Clutters are dead and Capote juxtaposes the happenings in the …show more content…
For most of the sections focusing on Dick and Perry, the narration is from Perry’s point of view, already highlighting Capote’s partiality to Perry. Capote often fixates on Perry’s softer, more sensitive artful side to make him seem less like a vicious killer, like when Perry was in prison awaiting his death sentence for a quadruple homicide, he would paint pictures of his fellow inmates’ children for them. Conversely, the main source of empathy one feels for Dick is from the fact that he did not have the resolve to kill the Clutter family. He was by no means a good person, but the fact that he could not proceed with the murders makes one feel almost bad for him. Capote even compels the reader to feel empathy for Perry when faced with his backstory and the letter from his father vouching for his goodness and standing up for his son who he sees as a decent person. The reader is compelled to feel guilt for Perry and to wish that he could do better. Dick’s backstory is not one of sadness but of wasted potential. Dick could have gone to college on a football scholarship, but ended as a convicted murderer. Even the rain, which was just the weather and nothing more, stirs up feelings in the reader’s chest that makes one want to reach out and yell to stop the executions. The fact that Perry said “Maybe I had something to contribute,
In addition, he had a sister and two other brothers who committed suicide as he grew up. As we look back at his childhood, we can see that Perry represents everything it means to come from a broken family and that his bad childhood deprived from relating to people in a positive way. Maybe Perry was the murder of this malicious act, but as a reader, it was troublesome to not feel sympathy for a person who was deprived of living a happy
In Cold Blood, written by Truman Capote in 1966 tells the story of the murder of a prominent family in 60’s Kansas. Capote traveled to the small town of Holcomb, and befriended many of the townsfolk and the detectives involved in the trial to tell the story of a violent event that shaped this community for the decade until the eventual conviction and execution of the killers. Because of information being told, Capote makes the choice of writing his novel as if it were a news report. This journalistic structure and word choice helps to establish the serious and dark tone of the novel.
In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis Typically upon hearing about a murder, especially a brutal and unwarranted one, we find ourselves feeling a great sense of disgust for the murderer or murderers who committed these crimes; however, in Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood, the lives and experiences of the murderers, particularly Perry Smith, are displayed in a way the makes you feel pity for him as well as the victims. When comparing Capote’s Novel to a typical news article on a similar topic it is easy to see the that Capote's style varies from typical journalism. An article written by Frances Robles and Nikita Stewart titled “Dylan Roof’s Past Reveals Trouble at Home and School,” discusses the childhood and background of Dylann Roof, a twenty-one
Although he ended up being one of the murderers of the Clutter family, the readers often felt sorry for him. In the beginning of the novel the reader finds out that Perry was actually very nervous about committing the crime, he and Dick were on the road to do. Capote made it seem like Perry
Truman Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood epitomizes the shifting sentiments related to the murder of the Clutter family which range from terror, to sorrow, to pride, and all mixed emotions in between. Yet through Capote’s particular descriptions about each character, the connection between their feelings and their actions become further clarified. In effect, the readers experience feelings of sympathy for the victims, their friends and family, the investigators, and even the brutal murders of the innocent family. In order to craft this association, Capote employs a pathos appeal to amplify the audience’s ability to sympathize with each and every character.
Throughout In Cold Blood, Truman Capote hints at his own opinion of the death penalty, yet lets the readers decide for themselves what they believe Hickock and Smith's punishment should have been. When the murderers are being hanged, a conversation occurs between a reporter and an investigator about what it might feel like to be hanged: "'They don't feel nothing. Drop, snap, and that's it. They don't feel nothing.' ' Are you sure?
In In Cold Blood, the issue over the death penalty is prominent. Did Perry and Dick deserve to die? Should the severity of one’s crime determine one’s fate? Although Truman Capote writes the novel in a straightforward, “from a distance” way, he conveys, through his characters, theme, and plot development, that the death penalty is an issue that should be looked at from all sides and that the legal system itself is the real issue at hand, and that the death penalty is used as a means to suppress the distress and indignation of the citizens surrounding the case, instead of suppressing the victim himself.
In doing so Capote invents a new genre of literature by telling the story through a new perspective. Capote as a writer chooses to put most of the focus of the book on the criminals, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, particularly Smith. He follows Smith’s life story, and explains that Smith was abused as a child, and the reader is to infer that as a result he seeks approval from others. This approval is what leads him to kill, and invent stories about killing, as he wants Dick to think of him as macho. Capote provides a plethora of evidence to support this reasoning, “He was seven years old, a hated, hating half-breed child living in a California orphanage run by nuns- shrouded disciplinarians who whipped him for wetting his bed,” (93).
How crazy would it be to interview criminals who murdered 4 people in cold blood? Well that’s exactly what Truman Capote did in this chilling book. In the novel In Cold Blood, Truman Capote used different rhetorical strategies to create sympathy and influence the idea that there are always two sides to every story. Some of the mainly used rhetorical strategies throughout the novel were imagery, diction, tone, and pathos. Furthermore, Capote also illustrated sympathetical emotion towards both types of characters, the protagonists and antagonists.
He ended up in a series of orphanages where he was severely beat and traumatized for wetting the bed. One nun at the orphanage would “ fill a tub with ice cold water, put me in it, and hold me under until I was blue.” Capote intends to provoke the audience's sympathy for Perry by including his terrible childhood experiences to explain his violent manner as well as provide reasoning to commit the crime he did. Perry has many examples of how his brutal life experiences cause his violent behavior. Perry has many sociopathic characteristics including, lack of moral responsibility or social conscience, erratic behavior, rage and anger, ability form a particular relationship to one person, crimes are usually spontaneous.
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, is a non-fiction true crime. In Cold Blood is about two murderers, Dick and Perry, who heard a rumor about a household possessing $5,000 and they wanted the money. Little did they know there was not any money and they got caught for murder to get nothing in the end. They ended up serving jail time and sentenced to hang till death.
Although Perry is responsible for the murder of four innocent people, Perry’s actions do not reflect on who he is as a person because he is easily influenced, therefore; showing how easily people can be pressured into doing something they would not typically do. Dick, a violent, cold-hearted, manipulator, has molded Perry into the person he is today. As Perry is a follower, Dick has taken advantage of that by turning Perry into the cold-blooded killer he is today. Capote displays Dick’s manipulation of Perry through symbolism to make evident that while Perry did pull the trigger on four innocent people, although the fault does not entirely lay on him, as he was taken advantage of by Dick.
He is portrayed as a mastermind in the cold-blooded killing of the Clutters family, a man with little respect for the lives of others, which can be seen through Dick’s expression before the murder of the Clutters when he converses Perry, “We’re gonna go in there and splatter those walls with hair” (Capote 234). This sudden tone shift enables Capote to depict Dick as a cruel and immoral character. Dick’s lack of empathy and concern for other people beside himself allow him to commit crimes without remorse, which is in contrast to Perry’s moral contemplation after each bad actions they committed. Moreover, Dick is represented as the true criminal with evident motives in murdering the Clutters, while Perry is seen as a vulnerable victim who depends on Dick for validation and acceptance, something in which Dick happily provides in order to manipulate Perry, as Capote writes, “Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, ‘a natural born killer,’—absolutely sane but conscienceless, and capable of dealing with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows. It was Dick's theory that such a gift could, under his supervision, be profitably exploited” (Capote 205).
No matter how we try to change our situation or better ourselves in society, variables will obstruct the path we choose. One cannot take control of everything that surrounds us as fate decides what happens to us. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote explains the murder of the Clutter family in the quiet town of Holcomb, Kansas. The murderers, Richard (Dick) Hickock and Perry Smith, try to escape the consequences of their actions, believing that they can get away with what they did. The story tells what the murderers were thinking after and before they committed the crime and their various interactions.
Capote throughout the book really analyzes the killers of the Clutter family, even sympathizing them. Capote's masterpiece has left a lasting impression on me with the way he evaluates and humanizes the killers. The book reads like a suspenseful horror novel, but every word