Truman Capote uses a variety of writing techniques in his novel In Cold Blood. He frequently utilizes parenthetical sentences as a way to include extra pieces of information in his writing. Capote first uses a parenthetical sentence in his opening description of Holcomb, Kansas, stating that “(Holcomb, like all the rest of Kansas, is ‘dry.’)” (Capote _). Capote adds this sentence in parentheses following a description of Holcomb because it is important that the fact be known, but it is not a crucial piece of information that the reader would absolutely need to understand the story’s setting. By adding the information in this way, Capote implies that although it is not extremely important to the story, it does have some bit of significance.