ipl-logo

In Cold Blood Summary

614 Words3 Pages

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote The book is about the murder of the Clutter family that happened in November 1959. The family was made up of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their children, Kenyon and Nancy, both teenagers and 2 other daughters who were married and lived with their husbands. They were living in Holcomb, Kansas, and on November 14, 1959, they were shot to death, Susan and some other of Nancy’s friends found the bodies on the 15th. Bobby Rupp was Nancy’s boyfriend and a suspect until he passed the lie detector test.Alvin Dewey the investigator of this crime only had a bootprint and a missing radio to go off of. While Perry Smith and Richard Hickock the murderers are returned to Olathe and packed to flee to Mexico but soon have to come back to the states. Floyd, a former cellmate of Richard Hickock, hears about the case and confesses that this crime might be the doing of Richard Hickock. During this Perry and Dick steal a car and go to Kansas city then to Miami and lastly to las vegas where the police recognize the license plate and take them into the station where Dick confesses that they had the intention to steal but ended up at the wrong house and for this reason killed them and Perry follow doesn't confess so he has to follow …show more content…

From the beginning of the book the author foreshadows that the murders are Dick and Perry.Which is irregular way of how the book of this genre are written, in regular crime book the author states the crime and then tells about how the clues are found from which you find out how and why the victim was killed and finally the murderer themself is revealed. This book was completely different. We know who the murderers are but we didn’t know exactly how or why the crime was committed.Which is a different way to interpret the case especially with the different perspectives that were in the

Show More
Related
910 Words | 4 Pages

He manipulated him in many ways, mainly during the execution of the crime, where he forced Perry to slaughter all four of the Clutters. Truman Capote makes it apparent that "It was Hickock who had forced Smith to take part in the murders, who had led him astray, who had destroyed him" (Capote 246). Perry was a victim of his influence, and was led down a destructive path that eventually led to both of their deaths. Moreover, Truman Capote contrasts their personalities; "Hickock, the mastermind of the crime, was the more vicious of the two...Smith, on the other hand, was a mixed-up kid who had been led down the wrong path by his older, more experienced partner" (Capote 93). Perry was very vulnerable and impressionable, so Dick took advantage of it.

Read More
168 Words | 1 Pages

Although Dick’s was fully aware of his actions, he even came up with the plan to go and try to steal from the Clutters, another important evidence that separates Perry and Dick is also overlooked by the court. Alvin Dewey states Perry, before signing the confession paper, “admit that Hickock had been telling the truth, and that it was he, Perry Smith, who had shot and killed the whole family” (255). It is revealed that Perry is the one who killed the members of the Clutter family and Dick did not. The court gives Dick the same death sentence that they gave Perry, the guy who actually did the killing. Although Dick is too some extent responsible for what happened to the Clutter and he was aware of his actions and what was happening, his punishment

Read More
691 Words | 3 Pages

In Cold Blood is based on a true story. It tells of the murders of the clutter family. The family of 6 consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter, their two teenage children, Kenyon and Nancy, and their two older daughters that were grown and out of the house. The family lived in Holcolm, Kansas and in November 1959, they were brutally killed in their own home by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, with no apparent motive. When the family was discovered, only small things were missing from their home,”...

Read More
168 Words | 1 Pages

In “In Cold Blood”, the enjoyment and relaxation reflect the group’s gratification of spending quality time together, fishing, aboard the Estrellita. The group of friends spend a great time together enjoying fishing aboard the fishing boat. They all help fish and do different fishing techniques. The imagery transmits the enjoyable, relaxing vacation, Perry and the others had on the boat. While “The sun was blazing”, Dick, Perry, a young Mexican, and Otto were on “A small boat riding at anchor in a mild sea”.

Read More
211 Words | 1 Pages

Unbeknown to them a police chase ensues. Both flee to Mexico, with Dick cashing bad checks to finance their trip. When Perry’s dreams of prospecting

Read More
178 Words | 1 Pages

While Perry is mortified that he and Dick could commit such a gruesome crime, Dick couldn’t care less. All Dick is worried about is how odd Perry is. Because of how quick Perry’s mood could change, Dick thought he was “spooky as hell.” Now, Perry wasn’t your average run of the mill man. He still wets the bed, cries in his sleep, and “could slide into a fury ‘quicker than ten drunk Indians’”.

Read More
1415 Words | 6 Pages

“In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote was published in 1966 but was started by him in 1959. In the 1960’s Kansas was shaken up about four people in the Clutter family being murdered. This was such an irregular and shocking situation because this was unheard of in such a small and connected town. The community was a very tight knit one, everyone knew everyone and everyone looked out for one another. On the 15th of November in 1959 is when the Clutter family was found bounded and all four of them shot.

Read More
821 Words | 4 Pages

Many readers of the novel In Cold Blood tend to believe that Perry’s conflict is with his partner, Dick, because he constantly talks down to and manipulates Perry. These readers however are wrong because Perry’s main conflict stems from the fact that he faced multiple complex traumas as a child which has led him to develop a mental illness. Perry continues to struggle with multiple effects of complex traumas such as dissociation, behavioral responses which are easily triggered, and difficulty or in ability to develop relationships with authority figures. These effects have stunted Perry’s ability to mature as an adult and have caused him to think impulsively and irrational throughout the novel.

Read More
400 Words | 2 Pages

Kellen Goldstein Glick Quarter 3 Independent Reading Essay 13 April 2023 In Cold Blood Essay Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is a true crime novel that chronicles the gruesome murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. Throughout the book, Capote uses gore as a symbolic tool to convey deeper meanings and themes. One of the primary ways in which Capote employs gore is through vivid descriptions of the crime scene.

Read More
1630 Words | 7 Pages

Dick knew how to manipulate and get what he wanted. He was who Perry saw as a masculine man, someone to not be crossed, but who Perry looked up to. Perry noted that Dick was not a good role model, but still sought his approval causing him to lie about committing murder which got him roped into going with Dick to murder

Read More
961 Words | 4 Pages

Capote portrays only one of these two seemingly distinct characters (Perry) in a way that the reader feels the need to relate to and even sympathize with him. One can be taken aback by such an attachment to a murderer. This is not surprising as the author uses his compassionate diction to manipulate the reader’s emotions with a use of pathos, the appeal to emotions. At one point Capote goes as far as to write that “Smith’s life had been no bed of roses,” (Capote 245) attempting to have the readers relate to Perry. On the other hand, Capote has Dick say this about himself: “Deal me out, baby, I’m a normal” (Capote 116).

Read More
1037 Words | 5 Pages

Dick believed it was for his “scams” he was doing on people in Nevada. Once they are in custody the officers start to question them about the night of the murder and the two “friends” turn on each other. Dick and Perry were both executed in 1965. “At the time not a soul was sleeping Holcomb heard them- four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives” (Capote 5). I now know that the other two lives that ended the night of the Clutter murder was Dick and

Read More
470 Words | 2 Pages

In doing so Capote invents a new genre of literature by telling the story through a new perspective. Capote as a writer chooses to put most of the focus of the book on the criminals, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, particularly Smith. He follows Smith’s life story, and explains that Smith was abused as a child, and the reader is to infer that as a result he seeks approval from others. This approval is what leads him to kill, and invent stories about killing, as he wants Dick to think of him as macho. Capote provides a plethora of evidence to support this reasoning, “He was seven years old, a hated, hating half-breed child living in a California orphanage run by nuns- shrouded disciplinarians who whipped him for wetting his bed,” (93).

Read More
590 Words | 3 Pages

Although Perry is responsible for the murder of four innocent people, Perry’s actions do not reflect on who he is as a person because he is easily influenced, therefore; showing how easily people can be pressured into doing something they would not typically do. Dick, a violent, cold-hearted, manipulator, has molded Perry into the person he is today. As Perry is a follower, Dick has taken advantage of that by turning Perry into the cold-blooded killer he is today. Capote displays Dick’s manipulation of Perry through symbolism to make evident that while Perry did pull the trigger on four innocent people, although the fault does not entirely lay on him, as he was taken advantage of by Dick.

Read More
1177 Words | 5 Pages

He is portrayed as a mastermind in the cold-blooded killing of the Clutters family, a man with little respect for the lives of others, which can be seen through Dick’s expression before the murder of the Clutters when he converses Perry, “We’re gonna go in there and splatter those walls with hair” (Capote 234). This sudden tone shift enables Capote to depict Dick as a cruel and immoral character. Dick’s lack of empathy and concern for other people beside himself allow him to commit crimes without remorse, which is in contrast to Perry’s moral contemplation after each bad actions they committed. Moreover, Dick is represented as the true criminal with evident motives in murdering the Clutters, while Perry is seen as a vulnerable victim who depends on Dick for validation and acceptance, something in which Dick happily provides in order to manipulate Perry, as Capote writes, “Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, ‘a natural born killer,’—absolutely sane but conscienceless, and capable of dealing with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows. It was Dick's theory that such a gift could, under his supervision, be profitably exploited” (Capote 205).

Read More

More about In Cold Blood Summary

Open Document