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Book Report For In Cold Blood By Truman Capote

693 Words3 Pages

Jack Newsome AP Lang Non-Fiction Book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote In Cold Blood, a 1966 novel by renowned author Truman Capote, is a non-fiction novel that details the murder of the Clutter Family in the community of Holcomb, Kansas. The book follows three distinct points of view, the murderers, the Clutter Family, and the community through sequencing. Many literary critics sight the novel as a pioneering work in the true crime genre of nonfiction The novel is written in a journalistic style, citing facts of the case. By starting the novel off with the murders, the author is able to build a mounting terror as the reader finds out the motivations of the killers in the novel. The author writes in a non-judgmental style about the opinions …show more content…

The book details their daily lives, work, relationships, etc. In a parallel narrative, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, the murderers, are heading towards their home with the intent to kill them all; even with the lack of a clear motive. Perry, in sharp contrast with Dick, is less enthusiastic about the crime. Perry’s motive for participating has nothing to do with greed or blood lust, instead wanting to stay with Dick long enough to reunite with his friend Willie-Jay. Willie-Jay was a former prison-mate that Perry is very affectionate …show more content…

Dick is put into a county Jail whole Perry is put into a cell for women in effort to keep the pair apart. The chapter also details the auctioning off of the Cutters items and the despaire the town feels about the murders. The trial arrives, and Perry and Dick's sanity are questioned, but they are ultimately deemed sane at the time of the murders and sane enough to stand trial. They are ultimately sentenced to death, where the book also details their experience on death row. Dick and Perry are put to death on April 14, 1965. Al ultimately feels great remorse for Perry viewing him as a child. The book ends on AL and his wife visiting the graves of the Clutter Family, recounting the tragedy. The book ends with both of them moving on and looking forward to the future of the small

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Throughout the book "In Cold Blood," the characters of Dick and Perry undergo significant changes. At the beginning of the book, they are portrayed as cold-blooded killers who show little remorse for their actions. However, as the story progresses, we see a more complex side to their personalities. One of the most significant changes in the characters of Dick and Perry is their relationship with each other.

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Although Dick’s was fully aware of his actions, he even came up with the plan to go and try to steal from the Clutters, another important evidence that separates Perry and Dick is also overlooked by the court. Alvin Dewey states Perry, before signing the confession paper, “admit that Hickock had been telling the truth, and that it was he, Perry Smith, who had shot and killed the whole family” (255). It is revealed that Perry is the one who killed the members of the Clutter family and Dick did not. The court gives Dick the same death sentence that they gave Perry, the guy who actually did the killing. Although Dick is too some extent responsible for what happened to the Clutter and he was aware of his actions and what was happening, his punishment

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Instead of breaking a few things in the house or yelling and screaming, out of frustration, he and Dick kill the family! They were so angry and full of rage when they realized there was no safe full of money. So why not just get out of there and find another person or place to rob? It seems to me there was so much adrenaline between the two of them that they took their anger out on the family.

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178 Words | 1 Pages

While Perry is mortified that he and Dick could commit such a gruesome crime, Dick couldn’t care less. All Dick is worried about is how odd Perry is. Because of how quick Perry’s mood could change, Dick thought he was “spooky as hell.” Now, Perry wasn’t your average run of the mill man. He still wets the bed, cries in his sleep, and “could slide into a fury ‘quicker than ten drunk Indians’”.

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1254 Words | 6 Pages

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

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In Cold Blood: Style Analysis Essay In the book “In Cold Blood”, by Truman Capote, the discomfort and relief tones reflect the mood of Dick and Perry as they leave Kansas City to Mexico. The men flee because they have committed a crime. Feeling uncomfortable by the crowd-ness of people and their belongings in a single car with them, but as they cross the border they feel relief.

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474 Words | 2 Pages

Although, Dick and Perry had no problem killing the Clutters their intent was just to rob them. Originally, Dick and Perry had planned to rob them because they were the richest family in Holcomb, Kansas. If they would have gone to the Clutters and only robbed them, there wouldn’t be a book about this case. Since Holcomb is such a small city, this murder case was very important to them and now so many others. “I didn’t want to harm the man.

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Although Perry and Dick both had cruel intentions, walking into the Clutters home that night, Truman Capote moreso aims to prevail the manipulation from Dick and the credulous personality of Perry, giving Perry an innocent perception; therefore, Capote asserts that not all criminals are all equally responsible for crimes. Capote utilizes anecdotes to embellish and describe Perry's child life, and in return creates contrast between Dick and his own family life. Perry’s father writes a story about Perry when he was young: “The next three years Perry had on several occasions runoff, set out to find his lost father, for he had lost his mother as well, learned to ‘despise’ her; liquor had blurred the face, swollen the figure of the once sinewy, limber Cherokee girl, had ‘soured her soul’...” (Capote 131). Inserting anecdotes helps to enhance just how helpless Perry was because Perry grew up without a stable family and no one by his side to help him along his journey as a child, Perry’s father describes this in the stories he writes about when Perry was young.

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In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was a crime novel that shock many people in the world because of how a small town family is kill out of nowhere by deformed murders and also how a community would be affected by this conflict. Also, Capote is successful of bringing the murders Dick and Perry back to live. Capote makes them too sympathetic because of how he expresses their mental health, their harsh backstories and the trial that take place in part 4. These three reasons make Capote successful of bringing the murders back to life. Capote is successful of describing the mental illnesses of the murders before they were evaluated by Dr, Jones.

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740 Words | 3 Pages

Dick uses this fake alibi , while Perry couldn’t handle the stress of lying and told the truth about the murders. After this, both Alvin and Floyd went back to interrogating Dick to try and break his lying similar to Perry. After confessing, Dick switches the story up at the last minute saying that Perry was the one that killed the Clutters and he was only there to try and stop Perry. This lead to the official arresting of both Perry and Dick, but something about Perry gave Alvin sympathy for him, the more he looks into Perry’s life, the more he realizes none of this was his fault, but his bad family history setting him up for failure, but nonetheless, he will still have to be punished for murder. The news of the arrests are spread throughout Holcomb and to the town’s surprise, the murderers were not fellow citizens as they previously

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1067 Words | 5 Pages

“Perry, as he later recalled, thought, Five kids - well, too bad.” Pg 107 He is just as careless as Dick. At this point, it is evident Perry and DIck can play along and act friendly to people all day long. As soon as the unknowingly kind individual turns their back, the two cold blooded criminals are ready to hit that person with an unexpected turn of events.

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911 Words | 4 Pages

Dick and Perry quickly appealed to each other. Perry was very territorial over Dick and maybe even in love with him. This attraction spiralled out of control when Perry found out that Dick wanted to rape Nancy Clutter, one of the murder victims. Imagining Dick with another human being caused Perry to turn delirious. Perry became so enraged that he shot all four members of the Clutter family dead.

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539 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1053 Words | 5 Pages

In the book, “In Cold Blood,” Truman Capote takes us through the lives of the murderers and the murdered in the 1959 Clutter family homicide, which transpires in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. The first chapter, “The Last to See Them Alive,” vividly illustrates the daily activities of the Clutter family—Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon—and the scheming plot of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith up to point where the family is found tied up, and brutally murdered. In doing so, he depicts the picture-perfect town of Holcomb with “blue skies and desert clear air”(3) whose safety is threatened when “four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives”(5). Through the eyes of a picture perfect family and criminals with social aspirations, Capote describes the American Dream and introduces his audience to the idea that this ideal was no more than an illusion. Herbert Clutter: the character Capote describes as the epitome of the American Dream.

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1177 Words | 5 Pages

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).

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