In Cold Blood Essay

The most important event in the book, In Cold Blood is the Clutter family being murdered. Without the Clutter family being murdered, there would be no book. Originally Dick and Perry’s plan was to rob the Clutter family, which wouldn’t have been as big of a deal to anyone except the people in Holcomb, Kansas. The whole book is centered around the killings so without the murders taking place this book would not have been written or it would have been written about a robbery, which would make it less interesting. Although, Dick and Perry had no problem killing the Clutters their intent was just to rob them. Originally, Dick and Perry had planned to rob them because they were the richest family in Holcomb, Kansas. If they would have gone to the Clutters and only robbed them, there wouldn’t be a book about this case. Since Holcomb is such a small city, this murder case was very important to them and now so many others. “I didn’t want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.” (Capote 244).

Everything in this book in some way relates back to either how the Clutters got murdered, the lives of the people murdering or the city they were murdered in. For the most part this book is about the lives of Dick and Perry because they killed the Clutter family. If this book would have just been about Dick and Perry robbing the Clutters, we would not need to know so much background on both. Oh Jesus, was she an Evil Bastard! Incarnate. What she used to do, she'd fill a tub with ice-cold water, put me in it, and hold me under till I was blue. Nearly drowned." (Capote