In Cold Blood
In Cold Blood is one of the most succeeded book by Truman Capote, which had been written and published in 1965. The readers mostly recall this book as a true-crime novel about the real murder of the Herbert Clutter family in the year of 1959. However, the book, itself, delivers much essential values rather than just telling a story of the victims and the murders. Capote, by using different writing techniques, such as: rhetorical appeals, simile, and comparison, leads the readers in sighting into the criminal mind, manipulates to achieving the reader’s sympathy toward the criminal, and also criticizes the death penalty of the capital back then. Last, but not least, Capote emphasizes the family and society as the main reasons that …show more content…
Throughout this book, Capote uses many of Pathos appeal to gradually manipulating the readers dismissing Perry’s action, when he is obviously a brutal killer of the Clutter family. For example on the pages 132, Capote describes Perry’s adolescent life as,” being put into a Catholic orphanage, where the Black Widows were always at me. Hitting me. Because of wetting the bed. She’d fill a tub with ice-cold water, put me in it, and hold me under till I was blue. Nearly drowned. I caught pneumonia and almost conked. I was in the hospital two month until my dad took me away.” Or on pages 138, “By now, over the years, that was all I had left me. Jimmy a suicide. Fern out the window. My mother dead. Been dead eight years. Everybody gone but Dad and Barbara.” By presenting Perry’s lonely past, Capote makes the readers feel a sense of relation to Perry awful life. Perry’s childhood is not peaceful at all, but he is a victim of social abuse. He was damaged, lost of his innocent and hope for future on the day that he being abandoned by his parents. Capote makes people think that Perry’s parents neglecting is the reason why he behave this way, so that the readers could connect, feel sorry, and sympathize with Perry’s …show more content…
However, Capote just half-way from his succeeded to convince the readers that Perry should not received the death penalty. In pages 246, Capote uses Alvin Dewey to state his opinion about the death penalty,” He found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger–––with, rather, a measure of sympathy––for Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, and ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another. Dewey’s sympathy, however, was not deep enough to accommodate either forgiveness or mercy. He hoped to see Perry and his partner hanged––hanged back to back.” With this quote, Capote illustrates his conflict between defending or condemning Perry is guilty. One side, Capote wants to defense Perry for believing that Perry’s had mental disability, however, he also want the victims ,at least, earn some justice for the suffering that they had to endured. Capote’s conflict debate confusing the readers. It is not strong enough to convince the reader that Perry is worth to forgive, but most people who read the book will feeling that the killers should receive the death penalty. In the scene on pages 154 and 155, Capote was failed to make the readers feel pitiful for Perry and his colleague, Dick. He uses comparison technique to compare the two scene; one, from the dream about Bonnie Clutter; and two, the
In Cold Blood is one of the most succeeded book by Truman Capote, which had been written and published in 1965. The readers mostly recall this book as a true-crime novel about the real murder of the Herbert Clutter family in the year of 1959. However, the book, itself, delivers much essential values rather than just telling a story of the victims and the murders. Capote, by using different writing techniques, such as: rhetorical appeals, simile, and comparison, leads the readers in sighting into the criminal mind, manipulates to achieving the reader’s sympathy toward the criminal, and also criticizes the death penalty of the capital back then. Last, but not least, Capote emphasizes the family and society as the main reasons that …show more content…
Throughout this book, Capote uses many of Pathos appeal to gradually manipulating the readers dismissing Perry’s action, when he is obviously a brutal killer of the Clutter family. For example on the pages 132, Capote describes Perry’s adolescent life as,” being put into a Catholic orphanage, where the Black Widows were always at me. Hitting me. Because of wetting the bed. She’d fill a tub with ice-cold water, put me in it, and hold me under till I was blue. Nearly drowned. I caught pneumonia and almost conked. I was in the hospital two month until my dad took me away.” Or on pages 138, “By now, over the years, that was all I had left me. Jimmy a suicide. Fern out the window. My mother dead. Been dead eight years. Everybody gone but Dad and Barbara.” By presenting Perry’s lonely past, Capote makes the readers feel a sense of relation to Perry awful life. Perry’s childhood is not peaceful at all, but he is a victim of social abuse. He was damaged, lost of his innocent and hope for future on the day that he being abandoned by his parents. Capote makes people think that Perry’s parents neglecting is the reason why he behave this way, so that the readers could connect, feel sorry, and sympathize with Perry’s …show more content…
However, Capote just half-way from his succeeded to convince the readers that Perry should not received the death penalty. In pages 246, Capote uses Alvin Dewey to state his opinion about the death penalty,” He found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger–––with, rather, a measure of sympathy––for Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, and ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another. Dewey’s sympathy, however, was not deep enough to accommodate either forgiveness or mercy. He hoped to see Perry and his partner hanged––hanged back to back.” With this quote, Capote illustrates his conflict between defending or condemning Perry is guilty. One side, Capote wants to defense Perry for believing that Perry’s had mental disability, however, he also want the victims ,at least, earn some justice for the suffering that they had to endured. Capote’s conflict debate confusing the readers. It is not strong enough to convince the reader that Perry is worth to forgive, but most people who read the book will feeling that the killers should receive the death penalty. In the scene on pages 154 and 155, Capote was failed to make the readers feel pitiful for Perry and his colleague, Dick. He uses comparison technique to compare the two scene; one, from the dream about Bonnie Clutter; and two, the