How Does Truman Capote Show The Middle Class

In the novel “In Cold Blood”, Truman Capote uses the Clutter family to show the middle class in America. He shows that their various belongings are suitable luxurious for the middle class. Capote also has the family in the typical gender roles seen at the time along with the self-made man idea heavily shown in the book. Where the family traves and activities they engage in are utilized to show the averageness of their life. The Clutter family represents the 1950s emerging middle class with everything from the house they live in, their family roles and success, and the activities they engage in outside their family. First, the residence in which the Clutters reside. The house was several stories and full of furnishings. The house had things such as “a immense modernistic living-room … a banquette upholstered in blue-and-white

This shows the average middle-class family of the time with a hard-working father able to provide everything the family needs. Herb is portrayed as someone who always knew “what he wanted from the world” (Capote 6). Able to attain success through just hard work and dedication, Herb is an example of what many Americans felt the middle class was. Additionally, the fact that it is a farm shows how the family isn’t above hard work and physical labor, something the upper class would see themselves above. Again, Herb is the main focus of this, with it being noted that he usually gets up “at six-thirty” (Capote 7). Often the mother and daughter don’t participate in as many physical activities as the males and while the mother doesn't follow all norms due to her failing health she tries her best to be a proper wife and lady at social gatherings. In the mother's absence due to illness Nancy “principally … prepared the family meals” (Capote 9) due to her being the only capable female. These things show the Clutters fitting into the nearly ideal image of a middle-class family in the