In Cold Blood is a meticulously constructed collage of witnesses, victims, police, killers, and citizens and their experience with the Clutter Family and their murderers, Dick and Perry. Although the nonfiction novel centers around Dick and Perry, the story is told through interwoven accounts from dozens of people. Capote bounces between these sources like a director cuts to different angles, in the end editing together a continuous product that supports itself like brickwork. Like a director, Capote uses these cuts between people for more than just support. Capote uses his editing to tell the story he wants to tell; he manipulates the reader's opinions, softens and hardens impacts as he sees fit, and disguises everything as if it is a first
…show more content…
In Cold Blood is by no means a simple story; from beginning to end the book covers about five and a half years. With no one person having all of the answers, Capote has no choice but to cut between selections to tell everything he wants to say in a timely manner. But that is just the thing; Capote tells what he wants to tell and saves what he does not. One of the first notable examples of Capote trying this is when the Clutters are discovered dead by Nancy and Susan. The first fifty pages of the story build up the approach of Dick and Perry and just when the two are “speeding through a deserted Holcomb,” approaching the Clutter property, the chapter ends and the next time Dick and Perry are mentioned they are “Far off, in the town of Olathe,”(57, 72). Capote completely skips over the murder of the Clutters and fills it with other character’s and their reactions to the murder. Now Capote has the actual murder as fuel to keep the reader wondering and engaged. The structure of In Cold Blood allows Capote to paint over details with other anecdotes he has gathered and leave the reader none the …show more content…
Capote took a story that a large portion of the world already knew and made it interesting by manipulating the audience and managing to fit a strong statement in the story. Without the addition of cuts between characters, In Cold Blood would largely become a journalistic piece. Instead Capote has created a story that manages to take a real life event and transcribe its mystery into ink. In Cold Blood has become a timeless classic not due to the story, but due to the way it is
In Cold Blood is by no means a simple story; from beginning to end the book covers about five and a half years. With no one person having all of the answers, Capote has no choice but to cut between selections to tell everything he wants to say in a timely manner. But that is just the thing; Capote tells what he wants to tell and saves what he does not. One of the first notable examples of Capote trying this is when the Clutters are discovered dead by Nancy and Susan. The first fifty pages of the story build up the approach of Dick and Perry and just when the two are “speeding through a deserted Holcomb,” approaching the Clutter property, the chapter ends and the next time Dick and Perry are mentioned they are “Far off, in the town of Olathe,”(57, 72). Capote completely skips over the murder of the Clutters and fills it with other character’s and their reactions to the murder. Now Capote has the actual murder as fuel to keep the reader wondering and engaged. The structure of In Cold Blood allows Capote to paint over details with other anecdotes he has gathered and leave the reader none the …show more content…
Capote took a story that a large portion of the world already knew and made it interesting by manipulating the audience and managing to fit a strong statement in the story. Without the addition of cuts between characters, In Cold Blood would largely become a journalistic piece. Instead Capote has created a story that manages to take a real life event and transcribe its mystery into ink. In Cold Blood has become a timeless classic not due to the story, but due to the way it is