An Analysis Of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood

The pursuit of creativity and innovation is an alluring quality that nearly all people possess. Making something the world has never seen before is attractive and enticing, but the chase for originality can sometimes lead to a subpar creation. Truman Capote wanted to make something the literary community had never seen before. He wanted to merge two styles of writing, journalism and fiction, to create a new art form which he deemed the “nonfiction novel”, or faction. Although In Cold Blood has its flaws, Capote’s novel was a wild success and changed the way people write with the impact it has on literary circles.

Capote tells his story in four parts: The Last to See Them Alive, Persons Unknown, Answer, and The Corner. The four

books give the reader a smooth transition between focal points in the novel. In “The Last to See Them Alive”, the chapter describes the Clutter family and their daily lives. It ends with Smith and Hickock brutally murdering the family and leaving the crime scene. The break in chapters gives the reader a short interlude to absorb the tragic event that just occurred. The cliffhanger at the close of the chapter also causes the reader to want to learn more of the plot and delve into the search for the killers.
Capote frequently changes the narration to provide a fresh and unbiased perspective to the story. When describing the act of the murder itself, Larry Hendrick is made the narrator. Hendrick is an aspiring thriller writer and a fitting describer of all the gory details of the crime. The point of view also changes between the murderers and the victims routinely until they meet in a climax of the murders. Suspense is created because of these switches and leaves the reader wanting to read more and continue to unravel the story line of the novel.
The writing style of “In Cold Blood” stays true to what Capote was trying to accomplish with his nonfiction novel. He remained factual and detailed in the portrayal of characters and settings while adding his own viewpoint and through what information he included or excluded in the novel.
Capote provides some of the most clear and strong descriptions of characters in critically acclaimed literature. He excels in character development over a short amount of time; this is particularly evident in his first book where he describes the Clutter’s and their daily lives. He details the hectic but happy life of Nancy, the ghostly, secluded Bonnie, and the reserved but promising, Kenyon. He forms an attachment between the reader and the family, creating a more dynamic tragedy when the Clutter’s lives come to an end.
The setting of In Cold Blood serves as a character in and of itself.

Capote dedicates the first three pages of the book to describing and giving details about the town. He shows the calm, tranquil mood of the town and how “Like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there”(ICB, p5). ***

One of the literary elements Capote favors in his novel is irony. He highlights certain events so that the irony is evident as the reader follows along with the plot. On the day Mr. Clutter was murdered, he had just purchased an $80,000 life insurance policy from Mr. Johnson. It was an almost impossible occurrence which Capote highlights in Mr. Johnson's reaction to the event. He states, “I didn’t believe it. I couldn’t afford to”(ICB, p71). Capote uses irony in his novel to bring humor to an otherwise sad and bleak story.

A constantly deliberated argument in the field of psychology is whether killers are born or made. This is explored in the discussion of nature vs. nurture. The basis of the argument is whether the abstract attributes of humans, such as personality, intelligence, and sexual orientation are determined by our coding of genes or by the environment we are raised in and lived in. In his novel, Capote shows the opposing views of this argument through the lives and personalities of Dick and

Perry.
Dick Hickock represents the nature side of the argument. In his autobiographical statement he discusses his childhood, “My father was always strict about us boys… I can only remember my mother and dad having one argument that amounted to anything”(ICB, p277). He was raised by two loving parents who taught him the difference between right and wrong. He was raised well and with discipline. His upbringing raises the question of where the cause of his criminal nature lies. Dick answers this question in the same statement when talking about his pediophiliac tendencies. “I never give any thought to whether it is right or wrong. The same with stealing. It seems to be an impulse” (ICB, p278). It’s in Dicks nature to act the way he does around young women and things he wants for himself. This can't be blamed on his parents, but on his chemical makeup and how from the minute he was born, he was a destined criminal.
Perry Smith lies on the opposing side of the argument. He was raised in a toxic environment with damaging authority figures. His mother was an alcoholic who drowned on her own vomit, and two of his siblings committed suicide. As a child, he spent time at a Catholic orphanage, where he was constantly hit by nuns, and later at the Salvation Army orphanage where a nurse would “fill a tub with ice cold water, put me in it, and hold me under till I was blue” (ICB, p132). In a psychiatric evaluation by Dr. Jones, a qualified physician who specialized in the studying of the criminally insane, he states that Perry “seems to have grown up without direction, without love, without ever having absorbed any fixed sense of moral values” (ICB, p298). Perry’s criminal tendencies were a result of the environment he was raised in and the people who had harmful effects on his psychological features. He was born a virtuous person but was corrupted by the influencers in his life.
Capote did extensive research for his novel in an attempt to be as accurate as possible. He educated himself on all subjects he covered in the novel; he “did months of comparative research on murder, murderers, the criminal mentality, and I interviewed quite a number of murderers,”(Plimpton). His background research gave Capote the knowledge he needed to write a true nonfiction novel. Although he did have to work on the notes for one year until he wrote anything, he in no way regrets it because, “It gave me [Capote] such a grounding that I never had any hesitation in my consideration of the subject”(Plimpton). Without his extensive research, In Cold Blood would be a flat and non factual novel. The abundance of interviews gave the novel the depth and complexity it needed to be a genuine faction novel.
The inspiration from every great idea has to come from somewhere. For Capote, his inspiration for In Cold Blood came from an idea he thought of when he first began writing professionally. He thought that “journalism, reportage, could be forced to yield a serious new art form: the ‘nonfiction novel’”(Plimpton). The idea had cultivated in his head until “one morning in November, 1959, while flicking through The New York Times, I encountered on a deep-inside page, this headline: Wealthy Farmer, 3 of Family Slain”(Plimpton). The article had given him the perfect subject for the book he was planning to write. Capote traveled to Kansas to delve into the case and the rest is history.
Writing a book centered around two malicious criminals and their victims would leave no author unscathed. Capote was affected both physically and mentally by the time he had finished the novel, he states, “Six years ago I had four more teeth and considerably more hair than is now the case, and furthermore, I lost 20 pounds” (Plimpton). After the book, Capote spiraled into a pit of alcoholism and died of liver disease and drug intoxication in 1984. He admits to the negative affect the book had on him and states, “If I had realized then what the future held, I never would have stopped in Garden City. I would have driven straight on. Like a bat out of hell” (Plimpton). In Cold Blood had a profound affection Capote but his toil and hardship resulted in a spectacular novel that according to Capote’s editor, “will change how people write” (Capote).
In the critical essay "The Case Against Faction" by Oliver Conolly and Bashar Haydar, the authors create a strong argument against the use of faction and dismisses the right to call it a literary genre. They bring up points on how Capote failed to remain completely truthful in a novel which he claimed was nonfiction, “In order to bring closure to his narrative, he had to make up a scene at the very end” (Connolly). The fictional ending causes distrust between the reader and the author; it raises the question on whether the rest of the novel is as dishonest as the ending. The essay also discusses that if faction was truly factually accurate it would be almost impossible for the author to have “the facts of a story that answer to the needs of plot, character and theme characteristic of the novel”(Connolly). If an author completely commits themselves to staying factual, the rest of the components of their novel will suffer, thus creating a lesser piece of literature.
Although Conolly and Bashar brought up good points on the subject, faction is Capote’s original creation, and with the formation of your own genre comes the ability to do what you want with that genre. He devoted tremendous time and effort into this novel and reserves the authority to write it how he wishes, even if he had to create a few small scenes to keep the book cohesive. Capote set out to write the book he was always meant to write (Capote), not to appease literary critics by following the traditional rules of literature. He changed the game of writing and ultimately, it was a beneficial risk.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a beautifully written page turner that was the origin of true crime novels. It’s well developed plot and characters stay with the reader and cause them to think about the ethical dilemmas depicted in the book. By being an individual and not succumbing to the writing that was expected of him, Capote created a groundbreaking novel that has a far reaching impact on authors to this day.