Truman Capote Rhetorical Analysis Essay

Truman Capote includes both Dick and Perry’s perspective in the passages from pages 107 to 113, and despite recounting the same moments and events, they differ in major ways. Both these passages implicitly reveal information about Dick and Perry through what they include, and don’t include; the rhetorical techniques like intentional syntax differences, as well as diction, and detail to convince the reader of whom they should believe and like. The two accounts differ in syntax and type of language, per sentence, between Dick and Perry, much like the rest of the book. Dick’s style of speaking is simple and inexpressive, and anything he discusses has a dispassionate feeling to it; this also explains why Dick’s account is far shorter than Perry’s. Perry’s perspective, however, is long, detailed, and expressive. This contrast between Dick and Perry’s account can be demonstrated with the examples of their dislike of talking about the Clutter murders. Dick recalls: “Why the hell couldn’t …show more content…
The reader is given Dick’s version of the story, which is less detailed and omits some information, and then upon reading Perry’s account second, the reader is distanced from Dick’s perspective. An important detail which is missing from Dick’s testimony, and one the reader is likely to care about, is Dick’s murder of the dog. At the end of Dick’s retelling of events, he notes that “he saw a dog trotting along”; however, Perry’s description is not as innocent. Perry recalls that Dick “swerved towards [the dog]” and that he is gleeful in doing so since he exclaimed: “Boy! We sure splattered him!” This blatant contradiction not only makes the reader distrust and dislike Dick for omitting that detail, but also for committing that horrible act and taking pleasure in doing