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Capote's Writing Style

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The "In Cold Blood" book was published in 1965 by Truman Capote, and after a year, in 1966, that book became the best-selling book. We can say that that book is special and unique from any other true-crime book because of Capote's new writing style, because of the strangeness of the murder, or simply because of the thrilling feeling of crime books. Those things made the "In Cold Blood" book a best-selling book.
Truman Capote created a new writing style called the "nonfiction novel" by combining journalism and creative writing (source 2). That alone probably made the book stand out from the rest of the true-crime books since the other writers are possibly using the same writing style over and over again. And people will get tired of those writing styles for sure. Based on my research, people get bored of seeing and experiencing the same thing over and over for a while. Because it will become predictable and less entertaining. So Capote's new writing style created a new path for the writers and new entertainment for the readers. But the "In Cold Blood" book has …show more content…

And Capote probably wrote the plot in that weird way because he struggled with alcohol and drug addiction (source 3) and messed up his mental health. And also, not to mention those two murderers are probably psychopaths because they went all the way to killing strangers just for a couple of hundred dollars. They planned to kill the guy who gave them a ride somewhere after the murderers killed the family, but they stopped because some military guy came into the car. In any case, those two are crazy. And some people like that kind of story because they consider those things as

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Truman Capote’s tone for pages 103-104 reflects a feeling of perplexity and anecdotic. The reason of perplexity exists in consideration of being given details on the Clutter family being murdered. The apologia of the anecdotic tone exists in view of how Capote gives a vivid description on how the murders actually happened and how the assassins left them and what their intentions were. These two pages make the reader feel the irresolution of the crime scene.

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706 Words | 3 Pages

I think Capote wanted to write about the murder of the Clutter family because it was horrifying and the process of getting evidence and reports from police officials is a different technique from what he usually did. Also, during the 1950’s people where not familiar with non-fiction novels. If Richard Hicklock and Perry Smith knew Herb Clutter had money and they came to his home seeking for money and got what they went to look for, why did they kill the family? Was there another way they could of handle the situation? If the murder was accidental why did they

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454 Words | 2 Pages

Jesse Brown IV Mrs. K. Ferguson AP English Language and Composition 13 August 2014 In Cold Blood I read a non-fiction novel entitled In Cold Blood written in 1966 by Truman Capote. One of the many reasons I enjoyed reading In Cold Blood is the use of many effective metaphors, my favorite being the title, In Cold Blood, a metaphor used to describe how the Clutter family was tortured and gruesomely murdered. Another literary device that captivated my mind was how Capote used repetition to vividly describe setting in a way that scintillatingly incorporated visual imagery.

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247 Words | 1 Pages

The book In Cold Blood is written by Truman Capote, an American novelist who wrote about the Clutter’s murder. In Cold Blood is about the murder of the Clutter family in 1959, at Holcomb, Kansas. Although this murder would be an ordinary murder in New York City or a very densely populated city it was very odd in a small town like Holcomb. The Clutter family consisted of Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon.

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612 Words | 3 Pages

The reason for the murders o How the community was affected • Thesis Statement: o We can express Capote’s intended audience, his person outlook of the suspects, and the many ways the actual event effected the community from the story of the Clutter Family murders. • Body: o Main point: Why did Capote put other information into the book to make the tragedy seem harsher than it was? o

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777 Words | 4 Pages

The book, In Cold Blood, is a

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690 Words | 3 Pages

One might want to read this novel, to see what makes an average man want to kill and to also see their psychological being leading up to it. This creates a mystery in the eyes of the reader to see why they did such a horrendous crime. The author’s purpose for writing this novel was to give the reader a different perspective on criminals. Capote uses a sympathetic tone when he talks about the histories of the criminals. He creates an emotional connection between the reader and the criminals because Capote allows the reader to get to know the criminal’s pasts, telling of the hardships the criminals have faced throughout their lives.

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1864 Words | 8 Pages

An overarching theme of Capote’s In Cold Blood is that everyone contains complexities without being fully right or wrong, which is unveiled through the descriptions of the murderers Perry and Dick and their transitioning psychological states as they carry out the crime. In his descriptions, Capote humanizes the murderers. Furthermore, Capote does not dehumanize Perry and Dick or fully justify the Clutter murders that made the duo killers.

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234 Words | 1 Pages

Dave Cullen and Truman Capote wrote descriptive novels based on actual crimes that took place in earlier times in Colorado. Both authors wrote about a total of four killers that were monsterous. The novels really gave the reader an insight the killers’ minds. In Cold Blood and Columbine were both about two monsterous killers that didn’t deserve to walk the earth any longer than they already had. Dick Hickock and Eric Harris were two of the killers from Columbine and In Cold Blood.

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171 Words | 1 Pages

In this passage, Capote utilizes asyndeton to achieve his purpose of elaborating Dick’s character, developed by describing Dick’s familial relationship. For instance, the syntax of this excerpt is the succession of two sentence fragments, said by Mrs. Hickock to Mr. Nye, that offers two reasons why Dick might not have written any mail to Mrs. Hickock. The lack of a conjunction to connect the two fragments that both start with “of” demonstrates the explicit repetition of similar ideas, emphasizing that Dick is truly ashamed of how he hurt his family, according to Mrs. Hickock. In Standard English, distinct words, phrases, or clauses forming a list are typically joined together by conjunctions; that Mrs. Hickock’s list of two reasons lacks the

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727 Words | 3 Pages

His poetic writing style adds painstaking details, but it also provides surreal occurings. It is absolutely true that In Cold Blood is based on a murder case that happened in real life. It is understandable that most of the book can be put together with extensive research-- which Capote did, for many many

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1483 Words | 6 Pages

Perry’s erratic spontaneous outbursts is what caused him to go through with the murders and slit Mr. Clutter’s throat which put him on the killing frenzy that ended the rest of the Clutters lives. Capote highlights Perry’s sociopathic tendencies by comparing them to that of Dicks Psychopathic tendencies which exemplifies how when put together they are at each others fault for the

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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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685 Words | 3 Pages

I fully believe our struggles define who we are and what we will become. My anxiety disorder has been a factor in my life ever since I was a child but it was always unknown, just something I believed to be normal. I knew I was anxious but I never knew why. As a child, I was always the kid that just “didn’t come out of her shell yet” and then during middle school, I realized something was wrong when I couldn’t get to school in the morning and panic attacks came daily.

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450 Words | 2 Pages

The non-fiction novel ‘In Cold Blood’ interestingly begins as a fiction novel would-with the author setting up the scene of the gruesome quadruple murder about to take place, unbeknownst to the victims. Capote describes the isolated flatlands of rural Kansas, and introduces the victims and their killers as if they were the main characters of a fictional murder mystery. What immediately struck me is how Capote uses literary techniques like the simultaneous narration of the lives of the killers and victims, and the fragmented retelling of the story not specifically in the order of events, which makes the story read more like a work of fiction than of pure journalism. As one gets engrossed in the book, it gets easier to forget that the story is based on truth and is not just a fictional story born in Capote’s head. Capote also demonstrates his mastery over the ‘thriller and suspense’ genre, detailing the Clutter family’s everyday lives, emotions and experiences but with progressively higher levels of anticipation as the pages go by, employing versions of the omnipresent phrase, ‘and that was their last’ for dramatic effect.

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