Point Of View In John Capote's In Cold Blood

Decent Essays
There are numerous speakers in In Cold Blood as it is written uniquely seeing as Capote continuously switched the point of view in which the story was being told. From time to time, he would tell the story from first person perspective and tell the events as he knows them like a narrator, and other times he would go back to third person perspective and tell the story from the point of view of a number of different characters in the book.
The tone of a story is the attitude the author expresses in their writing. The overall attitude depicted throughout the entirety In Cold Blood is despairing and unsettling. The author intended the tone of uneasiness to be so in order to convey his feelings toward Dick and Perry, the murderers. Mixed feelings

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    As a reporter, Capote reveals more than just the surface value of Perry Smith and Al Dewey. Perry is more than a cold-blooded killer, Al Dewey is more than a source of clues and information on a compelling murder case. Capote delves deep into the lives of both Smith and Dewey, exposing the depth and complexity of who they are. By doing this, Capote reveals the true nature of these two men, and therefore plays on the reader’s emotions, creating a sense of sympathy for these key characters in his book, In Cold Blood.…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, entirely reconstructed a horrific crime scene while depicting the lives of the runaway murderers. The author, Truman Capote, uses montage (a form of writing that switches back and forth) to allow the readers to see into the lives of the killers and the petrified people of Holcomb, Kansas. On November 15, 1959, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith brutally murdered Herbert, Bonnie, Kenyon and Nancy Clutter in their farmhouse. Floyd Wells, a previous cell mate of Dick Hickock, told him previously of a safe that was hidden in Mr. Clutter’s home office. Dick and Perry’s motive was to rob the Clutter family; however, they had no intentions on leaving behind witnesses.…

    • 1153 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 177 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Capote does not successfully have an objective and sympathetic tone in this novel. The two ideas are opposites of each other and contradict each other. To be objective means that one sticks to the facts and does not base anything around emotions or opinions. Capote demonstrates this with the use of the testimony during the car ride with Smith, Dewey and Duntz. Smith explains the events that unfolded before, during, and after the murder and even confesses to killing all of the family.…

    • 312 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Truman Capote was the is credited with inventing the nonfiction novel with In Cold blood. The novel tells the story of the Clutter family and the two men that murdered them, Dick and Perry. Capote became fascinated with these murders after seeing them in a news paper, so much so that While he was writing his book Capote spent a lot of time getting to know Dick and Perry personally, visiting them in prison and exchanging letters with them. Doing so allowed for him to acquire information about the two and their lives before and after the murders. If Capote did not have this information he wouldn't have been able to invent the nonfiction novel for he wouldn't have enough information to write an entire novel based on the information in the newspapers…

    • 1100 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In Cold Blood Essay

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Perry is deemed the ‘winner’ of this book, and by winner, the one who seemed to harbor the better reputation in the end. Even though both men are killers, Capote acts like Perry’s lawyer in hopes to reduce the stigma of who he was. Both men were guilty, but in making Perry the weak chick from the batch, it seems as if his death was unnecessary. Capote was torn to the ground in hopes of a better conclusion, he sympathizes with Perry due to their seemingly close paths, and he showcased all that he was and what he could have been. In conclusion, “In Cold Blood” not only involved the death of the Clutter’s, Dick, and Perry but the decline of Truman Capote as he had dug the soil in search for the rabbit hole that would save them…

    • 1285 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Capote describes Perry’s stay at the orphanage with the nuns portrays an image of abuse and malnutrition. They beat him for wetting the bed. Capote describes the nuns as “Black Widows” because the color black represents death, therefore this puts a negative feel towards the nun and a more positive and sorry feel towards Perry (132). Sympathy for Smith is created because the torture does not stop there, Perry leaves that orphanage and is moved into a children’s shelter, where a nurse nearly drowns him. Perry’s criminal record is included to create sympathy for him.…

    • 1358 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    What is the duty of a writer, one might wonder? Why do they write, and what must they include in it? According to William Faulkner, during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, the “writer’s duty” is to write with emotion and to cause a reaction with people. In the nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote, the author, fulfills his “writer’s duty” by switching the perspectives of characters and building strong character descriptions. As Capote tells the story of the gruesome murder of the Clutter family, his perspective changes between the killers, the lead detective in the case, and friends of the murdered family keeping the reader in uncertainty of how to feel.…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, there is a reoccurring theme of good and evil. The readers are constantly wondering if the murderers were evil. The quote, “Inside of us, there is the speed of both good and evil. It is a constant struggle as to which one will win. And one cannot exist without the other” relates to the texts main characters (Burdon).…

    • 728 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    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.…

    • 1113 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Impact of Juxtaposition in In Cold Blood by Truman Capote On pages 107 to 113, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote features two specific narratives during the same span of time. Characters Dick and Perry recall the visit to the Clutter family through separate streams of consciousness, eventually revealing the contrasting personality traits between them. As Perry begins to discuss the peculiarities of the murder, more so the fact that suspicion of the two has not yet risen, Dick expresses his immense lack of interest in the matter. Capote portrays both accounts through separate styles of writing. For example, Capote reveals the depth in Perry’s character by maintaining a constant structure in each sentence.…

    • 1064 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Cold Blood shows how the criminal justice system has flaws and inequality. Both Dick and Perry were aware that the actions they took were wrong, because of this they ruled out insanity. But throughout the book the reader questions Perry’s state of mind. Capote reveals many details about Perry’s past. In the book he uses appeal to emotion in order to create pity within the audience towards Perry.…

    • 1445 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    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.…

    • 1110 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, we learn about the horrific murder of the Herbert Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas. Capote uses a lot of detail to help illustrate the insanity of the murderers and the effect the murder had on the small farming community. The suspense that is a result of minimal facts and descriptive settings was an elaborate stylistic technique that gave effective results throughout the book. Capote writing the story in more than one perspective allows Capote to not have a bias towards either side. In one section in particular, Capote uses juxtaposition to emphasize the differences between the two murderers.…

    • 1208 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “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.…

    • 740 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays