What Is The Tone Of In Cold Blood

Ella Anderson

Mr. Potts

English 1010

26 January 2023

In Cold Blood In January 1965 American novelist Truman Capote analyzed the story of the Clutter family murders and inside the mind of a killer in the book entitled In Cold Blood. His book is meant to examine the Clutter family murders and the killer's motives. The author adopts a tone of sympathy and empathy towards the murderers. Through his use of similes, repetition, and allusions he develops an in-depth story of Perry Smith and Richard Hickock known as Dick, the murders of the Clutter family.

An important literary device used by Truman Capote in his book, In Cold Blood, is Simile. Similes emphasize what he is trying to convey to the reader in a vivid way. It is a device used to compare

Allusion helps the author enhance the text by delivering further meaning. Capote uses biblical allusions, historical allusions and literary allusions. An example of a biblical allusion used is “an inch more of rain and this country would be–Eden on earth.” (12) This allusion serves to give the reader a different perspective by using something they might not know about, like Mr. Clutters garden, and mentioning something they do know, like the garden of Eden. Capote further builds on his development of description through allusion. Further examples are “Andrews averaged fifteen to twenty books a week; his taste encompassed both trash and belles-lettres, and he liked poetry, Robert Frost’s particularly, but he also admired Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and the comic poems of Ogden Nash.” and “... had a good record in the Army, good as anybody; they gave me the Bronze Star. But I never got promoted. After four years, and fighting through the whole goddamn Korean war, I ought to at least to have been made corporal.” When describing or introducing something, such as a new character, he is able to help the reader better understand by mentioning something that we know