In Cold Blood Book Analysis

There has been much debate about whether authors should be able to tweak the story when writing about true incidents. In recent years, these nonfiction novels have been more truthful than those from half a century ago, like “In Cold Blood”. “In Cold Blood” is a creative journalism novel written by Truman Capote that describes a murder in Kansas and its aftermath that occurred during the 1950. Capote’s wildly popular novel was and is still being criticized for the book’s lack of transparency. However, these type of novels should be written honestly, as they can negatively affect people mentioned in the book and because readers expect a truthful approach from the authors. First, inaccuracies in a nonfiction book can be harmful to the people in the book. Just take a look at “In Cold Blood”. Many people in the book claimed they were wrongly portrayed according to the article titled “A ‘true

Authors often alter the account to make the story more compelling as explained in the article “If Truman Capote fibbed, does ‘In Cold Blood’ belong in the trash?” by Tuck Shaw of the Denver Post. Shaw suggests that a note from the publisher in forthcoming editions of Capote’s book should be included. This way the writer makes the account more captivating while the reader and the people portrayed in the book will know that the book isn’t meant completely factual. Regardless, writers should never lie in their account without acknowledging it. All in all, writers should always be truthful when writing a creative journalism novel. Not doing so has many negative effects as shown above. People portrayed in the book are entitled to be properly portrayed while readers deserve an honest approach from the author. Also, Inaccuracies negate the literary merit of the book. “In Cold Blood”, the mother of all nonfiction novels, shows why this why this style of writing should always be