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Compassion In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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‘In Cold Blood’ demonstrates that compassion must be extended to both victims and their killers’ Discuss Truman Capote, through his celebrated nonfiction work ‘In Cold Blood’ depicts the events preceding and following the brutal murder of the prominent Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas, 1959. The text clearly emphasizes that compassion must be extended to all victims of the violent crime. The term ‘victim’ is not exclusively reserved for the murdered but is extended to the family, friends and the entire community of Holcomb. To a lesser extent, Capote demonstrates that compassion should be shown to one of the killers. Capote challenges the reader to become compassionate towards Perry Edward Smith, despite knowing he murdered four innocent …show more content…

Capote illustrates such potential for the family, particularly that of the children who are both talented and exceptional in their own ways. This familiarity that Capote establishes allows for a sense of devastation and compassion to be felt by the reader in the wake of the murders. Compassion is naturally extended to those whom are close to the Clutters, Bobby Rupp and Susan Kidwell are poignant examples of this. For these young adults, and children of the school and community, the loss of Nancy and her family would be the first true tragic event that they have experienced in their lives. This experience of tragedy evokes sympathy naturally from the reader towards those close to the Clutter’s. The disruption to the close knit and trusting community in Holcomb, which was once a place in which doors were always unlocked, demands the readers compassion. Prior to the murders, Holcomb and it’s residents are described by Capote in an idealistic manner, trusting, low to no crime, proud of their community and friendly. This lifestyle is abruptly destroyed along with the Clutters; prompting sympathy to be extended to those left behind as well as directly to the murdered Clutter …show more content…

Hickock’s backstory of denied opportunity and of his seemingly debilitating “car smash-up”, should also evoke compassion, however Capote swiftly extinguishes any compassion that may be extended towards Dick. Following the murders, Hickock takes every opportunity to run down dogs in Mexico, exclaiming “Oh Boy!” each time he hits a dog; Perry recalls Hickock excitedly saying “we sure spluttered him” after they hit the dog. This action cements the the sociopathic, homicidal image that the reader holds of Hickock and deepens it with an element of sadism as Dick takes pleasure in killing the dog. Unlike Perry, Dick appears to take pleasure in killing an which extinguishes any of compassion that may be extended towards him. The ‘final nail in the coffin’ is when Dick’s “perverted” tendencies are discussed by Capote. Hickock’s “sexual interest in female children” was despised by Perry, so much so that Perry prevented Dick from raping Nancy Clutter. The reader, through the total exposure Hickock’s lack of morality, views Hickock as completely undeserving of any compassion or

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Truman Capote was a very talented writer, and he always knew the perfect ways to portray each character in all of his books. In his book In Cold Blood, Capote interviewed both of the killers, but he knew that there was something about Perry Smith. Throughout the whole book, he would be constantly trying to figure him out and why he did what he did. Throughout the book, Capote uses the technique sympathy to portray Perry.

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Picture a town that is run-down. A place where streets are “ unnamed, unshaded, unpaved.” Where is it “ simply an aimless congregation of buildings divided in the center by the main-line trails of the Santa Fe Railroad.” Truman Capote describes this town, Holcomb, in In Cold Blood. Through this journalistic style of writing Capote uses imagery, selection of details, and structure.

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Sympathy for all Truman Capote was a well known author for Breakfast at Tiffany's, House of Flowers and his most famous In Cold Blood. The one he is most famous for, In Cold Blood, is about the spontaneous murder of the Clutter family; it sparked a new genre of writing - the nonfiction novel. The book describes how the detectives are solving the murders and also includes the perspective of the ones who committed the crime. Capote additionally encompasses the towns people’s outlook on the situation. He was able to create sympathy for all characters in this book, including the murderers and also show that there are always two sides to every story by using the rhetorical devices of pathos, foreshadowing and conceit to create the effect of giving

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Dick did not deserve sympathy from anyone; Capote did not remotely try to draw attention to Dick’s redeeming qualities, if any could be found. Dick premeditated the murder for years, he played the scenario out in his head over and over and knew that he wanted no one left alive. Dick had nothing but 10,000 dollars on his mind that night, and was willing to let Perry to anything to find it. Regardless of the portrayal of either character in this book, they both were responsible for the death of four innocent people in their own

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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.

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In Truman Capote’s nonfiction text, In Cold Blood, the Herbert Clutter family was brutally murdered by two men by the name of Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. Once the deaths of Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter were found, almost no clues were present to link Hickock and Smith as the killers. Despite In Cold Blood being nonfiction, Capote writes as if the text is a novel using tone and diction to manipulate the reader’s mood, and engaging the reader. In custom, nonfiction books are written to state facts, which discourage people from reading it as they feel that nonfiction is not as amusing as reading a fiction book.

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He succeeds in creating these complex personalities that many can relate to by using a myriad of tones to illustrate every aspect of those engaged, such as their childhood, their family, or their emotions. For instance, Bobby Rupp, Nancy’s boyfriend and Perry Smith, one of the slayers, represent two individuals who readers commiserate with due to their distinctive characterization. Capote presents Bobby Rupp as the “school basketball hero”, and “dependable” for his age; Capote not only highlights his maturity, but also his emotional condition after the homicides. The readers understand that Bobby loves Nancy dearly, and her loss shocks him as demonstrated through Capote’s text: “He was ill, that grief had made him so, that grief had drawn a circle around him he could not escape from and others could not enter”

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Although Dick had a loving family who saw him as a child who could do no wrong, Capote deduces from “[o]ne [neighboring] farmer’s wife [who] said ‘Dick Hickock! Don’t talk to me about Dick Hickock! If ever I met the devil! Steal? Steal the weights off a dead man’s eyes!...

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In addition, the book makes a bold statement about the breach of trust that can occur when a violent crime strikes a small community. In the small community of Holcomb, the breach of trust occurs solely when the Clutter family was murdered. The Clutter family was thought of very highly throughout their community, and most everyone was extremely fond of their company, so it was an enormous shock that a family that felt so safe and secure would endure this kind of tragedy. For example, in the text it states,"But afterward the townspeople, therefore sufficiently unfearful of each other to seldom trouble to lock their doors, found fantasy re-creating them over and again-those somber explosions that stimulated fires of mistrust in the glare of which many old neighbors viewed each other strangely, and as strangers." ( Capote 5).

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And by just using a word or two every so often when describing Nancy, Capote is able to emphasize these characteristics and capture a child-like aspect of Nancy’s character. Nancy embodies characteristics of innocence and purity and by emphasizing these aspects of her character, the reader is more easily able to create an attachment to her. This is because it is an attachment to a young and innocent little girl rather than a rebellious teenager. And it is this technique that builds an even stronger connection between Nancy’s character and the reader by emphasizing the point that she was a sweet and innocent girl with her whole life still ahead of her. This is the ultimate reason why when she, along with the rest of the Clutter family was murdered, the reader feels a very strong feeling of pity and remorse, particularly for Nancy because of the life she could have

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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).

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