Kansas State University

One thing is guaranteed in life, death. Death, being the end of life, affects everyone and everything. Humans die of cancer, animals get killed for food, plants burn in the sun, even mountains turn to rubble as weather corrodes its faces away. Many people become obsessed with death, they fear it and let it rule their life. While others do the opposite, some people live everyday as if they will die on the next. Each person develops their own perception of death such as Truman Capote author of In…

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…

Sometimes bad things happen to good people because of the wickedness of others. In Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood, he writes a detailed account of murderers Perry Smith and Dick Hickock that shows this type of wickedness by sharing the graphic details of the murders. Charged with murdering a family of four in cold blood with no true motive, the heartlessness and evilness of the two killers is inarguable. Truman Capote also shows their humanity, which draws sympathy from his readers.…

The cemetery scene with Detective Dewey and Susan never happened. According to Capote after Perry was hanged Dewey needed relief. Dewey states that he remembers going to the cemetery and running into Susan Kidwell who was there visiting Nancy’s gravestone. They had a short conversation about where Susan and Bobby were now, and the story ended. In real life his conversation never happened;…

social justice group, the American Friends Service Committee. During this time, I’ve learned so much about myself, as well as Kansas City’s youth. I’ve helped organize a city-wide high school poster art project and a poetry workshop of the same — giving students a platform to speak out on social issues. This consisted of conducting interactive lecture style classes in Kansas City metro schools such as Paseo, Wyandotte, Washington, Cristo Rey, De La Salle, and various youth organizations. I’ve…

not giving the whole story of the brutal murders, because that isn’t the point I’m trying to make. The point that I’m trying to make is how different Dick and Perry handled the situation. During this time, both men were in different psychological states of mind. For Perry, he thought that “there must have been something wrong with [them], to do what [they] did. There’s gotta be something wrong with somebody who’d do a thing like that”. Looking back upon the murders, Perry could not comprehend…

Truman Capote’s first non-fiction novel, “In Cold Blood”, recaps the events around the murder of the Clutter family, by focusing on the two murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. Throughout the book, Capote acknowledges the perpetrators without a bias perspective, he does this by giving the backstory of both Dick and Perry. Capote does not just focus on the murder, but instead introduces Dick and Perry as two people who made a horrible mistake and deserve sympathy. However, if you sympathize…

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). Capote uses informed opinions and vivid descriptions to debate the good within evil, and how Perry and Dick relate to this. By the use of…

A Time to Never be Forgotten I will never forget the hot Florida sun in the summertime or the squeaking of basketball shoes moving across the hardwood court. All this happened when I was in the 3rd grade. As I was eager to get out of Kansas, I started packing my bags the night before, and I usually never pack until my mom is yelling at me at the top of her lungs to get out of the door. This was going to be my second time heading back to Florida, but my first time going there for basketball. We…

In 1974, “Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders”, was written by Vincent Bugliosi. Who was a Los Angeles attorney that persecuted Charles Manson 1971 for directing the death of the in the Tate and La Bianca Murders. Right when you open the book Bugliosi writes,” The story you are about to scare the hell out of you “. The book I am about to explain was chosen because those that followed Manson, listened and believed every word he said. The book showed how the whole process started…