Caitlin Fuhs
Mrs. Koshholek
Capp English
January 27, 2023
In the beginning chapter of In cold blood (1959) the author Truman Capote initiates suspense throughout his passages by slowly foreshadowing the outcome of the Clutter case, this provokes the reader to further their curiosity. The setting of the murders in Holcomb, Kansas, is portrayed through similes that contrast normal concepts in order to imply to his audience that Holcomb was an average, quiet, small town. Capote creates the setting of Holcomb using alliteration. He does this by providing multiple concepts that illustrate it as the typical hometown before contradicting the setting post murders, This intentionally creates empathy for the community that suffered a great loss and went unrecognized. Furthermore, it can be argued that Capote does not show enough sympathy for the victims. Instead, he tends to focus on the story plot as a whole and the history of the killers rather than the innocent victims who were murdered.
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Capote’s writing format reveals his attempt to engage his audience by foreshadowing information about the crime. For example, Capote ends one of his pages with the passage “Four shotgun blasts, that all told ended six human lives.” Overall this quote leaves Capote’s audience wondering who the victims were and how they died, we later discover as the novel progresses that Captoe includes the murderers as the victims that died that night. This is based on the personal relationships he formed with Richard and Perry, making In Cold Blood biased and dishonorable towards the actual