In Cold Blood is one of the most famous and first true crime novel from the author, Truman Capote. Following the traumatic events of the Clutter family murder, Capote “…uses a number of different perspectives — the killers themselves and also neighbors and investigators — to weave his story together” (Wiener). By including multiple perspectives from the murderers to the residents, the novel contains many themes; one of those themes I easily saw was the community’s loss of innocence following murder of the Clutter family. Holcomb, Kansas (town population of 270) was a tight-knit community where every residents knew the other and the center of it were the Clutters.…
Holcomb in western Kansas, where everything is humdrum. If you were ever to pass through Holcomb you wouldn’t stop and visit. The village of Holcomb has nothing that catches your interest like Capote said, “ The Land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive.” In Cold Blood, Truman Capote uses tone to describe how uneventful town.…
After the much anticipated interview with the killers of the Clutter family, Truman Capote, the writer of their story, In Cold Blood, alters the perception of those around him by exhibiting the sympathy of the man who had the reason to hate the killers the most, yet didn’t. This man was the detective in charge of their manhunt, Alvin Dewey. Even though it was expected that all he ought to have felt was anger towards these brutal killers, he simply felt “a measure of sympathy”. We understand the true purpose of the detective, to understand. After his goal was completed, that was all that was there, an understanding.…
Perry Smith dreamed of seeing his stage-name “Perry O’Parons” on newspaper headlines, wishing to attain fame and fortune through his great musicianship. It is the year 1960, and Perry’s name is found on newspapers all across America, but he is not written of as the musical prodigy he wishes to be. Instead, he is being criticized for committing a crime that is leaving the nation in shock. On November 15th, 1959, Perry Smith and his partner-in-crime Dick Hickock murdered an innocent mother, father, and their two adored children. One the surface, these two characters are cold-blooded killers.…
The Lovely Bones; the first murder novel I ever opened. The gruesome story hooked my attention immediately. I could not look at people the same. After that story, I have always had a strange passion for investigating murders and crimes; hence why, when I was given the novel In Cold Blood, I was nothing but excited. Truman Capote, the author and investigator of the Clutter family murder, is an outstanding novelist.…
Within humanity we are a very emotional based species. We would do just about anything if we felt strongly enough about it. Now stopping emotions is completely out of the question but there are times when emotions cloud our judgement of bad and good. After looking at the book In Cold Blood with this set in mind I have come to realise that Truman Capote has let his emotions show through to the book. Within the book In Cold Blood the author Truman Capote presents the killers Dick and Perry through a very subjective way.…
In 1959, the savage murder of the Clutter family attracted thousands of journalists to the remote town of Holcomb, Kansas. One of them was author Truman Capote, who had recorded the details and consequences of the murder in his best-selling novel: In Cold Blood. Debated hotly regarding its credibility and writing style, the novel remains a controversial and unique work. In Cold Blood is important to be read by high school students since it exposes students to a renowned work of a unique genre of novels, exhibits Capote’s mastery in characterization and provides a vast amount of information about a significant event in criminal justice history.…
Truman Capote, the author of In Cold Blood, had an intense and meaningful relationship with both murderers of the Clutter family, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Readers of In Cold Blood do not have a full, unbiased view of the crime because of Capote’s relationship with Perry and Dick. In order to create a more sympathetic view of both Perry and Dick, but mostly Perry, Capote manipulated the story and information through examples and backstory to show the killers as sympathetic people instead of cold blooded murderers. Readers are not seeing the full story from an unbiased eye when reading In Cold Blood because of how close Capote was with both Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. By showing the childhoods and backgrounds of both Perry and Dick, Capote created a sympathetic audience for the murderers.…
What drives people to the edge? So far gone that they commit heinous crimes, and become compulsive liars for only their benefit. That’s the question Truman Capote tries to answer in his novel, “In Cold Blood”. Capote analyzes the two killers of the Clutter family, Dick Hickock, and Perry Smith, to inform the audience on who they were and not just what they were. First off, the Clutter’s were a family who lived in the small town of Holcomb Kansas.…
The novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote details the investigation of the seemingly motiveless murders of a small farming town family, the Clutters. In the book, the tone of the writing creates a feeling of emotionless fatalism, emphasizing overall the unfairness of life, as can be seen throughout the novel, especially after the murder of the Clutter family. A fatalistic tone is expressed mainly in the dialogue of the murderous characters Dick and Perry. The unfairness of life is shown through the conflicting suffering of the Clutter family and the suffering in the lives Dick and Perry. It is expressed throughout the narrative, mainly during the middle and later parts of the book, that characters are powerless to do anything other than live…
Through the use of rhetorical strategies, Truman Capote manipulates the reader’s emotions by portraying Perry Smith in In Cold Blood as a sympathetic character. Perry Smith, along with his partner Dick Hickock, murder the Clutters, a well loved family in the town of Holcomb, Kansas. This small town consists of people, who immediately outkast the murders because they only understand their own lives, and nothing outside of Holcomb. Although there are two murderers, this rhetorical analysis will solely focus on Perry’s traumatic childhood. To share an outsider’s point of view of the situation, Capote uses simile, alliteration, and theme to influence the reader to sympathize with Perry, rather than to condemn him.…
“Two wrongs don’t make a right, but it damn sure makes us even.” This famous quote relates well to the concept of the death penalty. In Truman Capote’s book, In Cold Blood, the two villains, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith commit an act of murder against a family of four. The murder takes place in the family's’ home in Holcomb, Kansas. The storyline is told from the eyes of law enforcement and also from the eyes of the two murderers.…
In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, is a nonfiction novel about the mass murder of an innocent family. Though highly acclaimed, the book ends up falling short of its nonfiction description, as the article, “Critical Essay on In Cold Blood”, argues that there is great bias in In Cold Blood in the form of sympathy towards the main character, Perry Smith, which is certainly true. Instead of following the conventional format of a nonfiction mystery novel, Capote uses In Cold Blood as an outlet to express his sympathy towards Perry Smith, the man who ruthlessly murdered four innocent members of the Clutter family. This evident bias hampers Capote’s attempt at an impartial account of the Clutter family mass homicide.…
Truman Capote brings Dick and Perry front and center during “The Corner” chapter of In Cold Blood. Capote allows the reader to empathize with Dick and Perry in completely different ways. Each character shows how the arrest, interrogation, and sentencing affects them and the way they process life. These emotional attachments that Capote creates allows the reader to discover that not only are Dick and Perry not ruthless murders, they are actually humans with fears and regrets. The arrest that happens in Las Vegas comes as an utter shock to Dick and Perry.…
“Manipulation is all about reading between the lines and recognizing the lies for what they are” (No Author), Truman Capote wanted to gain the the reader's pity and remorse for Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. At first, capote just wanted to tell the facts of the case to the world but he became attached to Smith. In the novel, In Cold Blood, written in 1965, Truman Capote, a well-known author, asserts that the Clutter family was murdered and that Perry Smith should have the reader's’ pity by using first hand accounts, the murder, and the murderer's story. In “The Last to See Them Alive” section, Capote sets the scene and gives the eyewitness statements of the day leading up to the murder.…