In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis

The novel, In Cold Blood, is by the professional writer responsible for writing Other Voices, Other Rooms, as well as the novella, Breakfast at Tiffany’s; his name is Truman Capote. Truman Capote came from a troubled beginning, between his mother and father separating to his mother’s drinking problem, Capote had a troubled childhood. But he always had a knack for writing. He published his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms, in 1948, and it was a hit. He wrote a few more novels between the time of the publishing of his first novel to the publishing of the hit that is called In Cold Blood. In Cold Blood tells the true story of the gruesome murder of the prominent Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. There was no apparent motive,

One might want to read this novel, to see what makes an average man want to kill and to also see their psychological being leading up to it. This creates a mystery in the eyes of the reader to see why they did such a horrendous crime. The author’s purpose for writing this novel was to give the reader a different perspective on criminals. Capote uses a sympathetic tone when he talks about the histories of the criminals. He creates an emotional connection between the reader and the criminals because Capote allows the reader to get to know the criminal’s pasts, telling of the hardships the criminals have faced throughout their lives. In result, the reader will begin to sympathize with the criminals. In the novel, Capote uses imagery to tell of the peaceful atmosphere where these gruesome murders happened. Capote describes Holcomb as an area being “with hard blue skies and desert-clear air”(Capote 1). He describes Holcomb as a peaceful small town, with nobody ever expecting a grisly crime to happen there. But as time goes on, the unthinkable happens, and the citizens are now in fear of each

Although this novel is labeled non-fiction, some people have contradicted the details found in the novel. A lawman involved named Harold Nye contradicted Capote’s accounts saying that while Capote claimed that after the police received a tip-off from anonymous person, that they rushed to parent’s house of one of the murderers. But Nye claims that investigators visited the house five days after the tip-off, which allowed the killers to flee to Florida. This is just one of the contradicted statements, but there are apparently others. Capote’s style in this novel is known for being one of the first to exhibit this new form of journalism, and to also test the merit of journalism. By this it is meant the Capote blurred the line between truth and untruth, embellishing things such as quotes and even ending the novel with a scene that never happened. The scene that is allegedly made up is the scene at the end in which Dewey sees Nancy’s friend Susan at the Clutter grave sites. Dewey said that the scene never happened. Capote embellished things to make the novel more interesting, and to keep readers engaged. It makes the reader wonder where reality ends and fiction