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Character development introduction
Analysis of Cold Blood by literary critic
An essay on character development
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In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the story illustrates a very long case of finding the murderers, Perry and Dick, of the Clutter family, the victims. Capote illustrated the investigation and the murder as if the readers were part of this investigation. The author also tells us details from the main to little, unimportant information of every adventure and event that happened to the killers before and after the killing. He describes the case that had began with little to no clues to go from, to miraculously finding and executing the murderers. As he develops the story, we begin to see the dynamic changes in characters as well as static characters. We also see his use of motif and setting together in this piece of literature as he begins In Cold Blood. …show more content…
As the story unfolds, the readers learn the background setting of certain characters from flashbacks and letters that Perry holds from his father and his remaining living sibling, his sister.
We start to see some dynamic characteristics of our killers. We quickly learn from the letters that Perry’s father wrote about Perry’s childhood of his mother’s alcoholism which resulted in his parents getting divorced and the many characteristics Perry is described by his father. When Perry’s parents got divorced, his mother went to San Francisco and taking all their children with her. He did not like his mother as much as his father, so he tried to run away looking for his father, but that resulted in his mother sending him to an abusive orphanage. Perry did not get a very good education seeing that he only had about three years of school. He also had to go through the dramatic experience of two out of his three siblings dying. Perry was one of the most dynamic characters of story which shows that Capote was very close to
Perry. Truman Capote had created much suspense by adding motif in the beginning of the story; he later created the setting of suspense while the readers wait for the moment the murderers are captured and proven guilty. At the end of most of paragraphs, he kept repeating the phrase “That was the last I seen them” or something similar. When Capote kept building the suspense up by adding that phrase, it makes the readers anticipate the moment when the killers kill their victim. Capote also does not go into much detail at first when the Clutters were killed, but he does describe the scene later on when he talks to Perry and Dick. Capote also creates a setting where it is peaceful when it starts off, but then, it goes into panic as the case was not being solved for a long period of time, which caused the citizens of Holocomb, Kansas to distrust each other and began to move away. As the story progresses, we learn behind the scenes of Perry and Dick from their early years as Capote gets closer to them personally. Capote writes that Perry had gone through a rough time as a childhood, so that might be the reason Perry became a murderer; Dick was in an auto accident and got a concussion, and Dick became a “different” person in general, which most likely caused Dick to become a murderer. With Capote knowing Perry and Dick on a personal level, he creates a sad ending because he describes of how Perry and Dick feel and what they have been through to create who they are now. Capote creates a beautiful setting of how it slowly progressed throughout the story whether to have pity on the murderers or to believe they deserved what they got. With the use of dynamic characters, settings, and motifs, Truman Capote creates a brilliant way to express this macabre case of murdering the Clutter family.
Capote tells the story in a way that makes you feel you are being told about the characters by a close acquaintance of each individual character. When you aren't hearing the voices of the characters as they tell their own stories, we hear, not the voice of an author, but the voice of a friend who knew the characters well. (Before saying her prayers, she always recorded in a diary a few occurrences... Perry didn't care what he drank... etc.)
Throughout the first part of In Cold Blood, “The Last to See Them Alive,” the reader can find extensive descriptions of the characters and setting. Much of the first forty pages is Capote giving elaborate descriptions of the Clutters and of the Holcomb area. For example, Capote gives us insight on Nancy’s personality when one of the
Through the course of the book, Capote uses vivid descriptions to his advantage in order to place emphasis on more noteworthy parts of the story. Capote’s choice of imagery characterizes Perry as a person and gives an idea to who he is. Perry’s life prior to crime was normal for awhile, until his family situation crumbled: “in the ring, a lean Cherokee girl rode a wild horse, a ‘bucking bronc,’ and her loosened hair whipped back and forth, flew about like a flamenco dancer’s. Her name was Flo Buckskin, and she was a professional rodeo performer, a ‘champion bronc-rider.’ So was her husband, Tex John Smith; it was while touring the Western rodeo circuit that the handsome Indian girl and the homely-handsome Irish cowboy had met, married, and had the four children sitting in the grandstand. (And Perry could remember many another rodeo spectacle--see again his father skipping inside a circle of spinning lassos, or his mother, with silver and turquoise bangles jangling on her wrists, trick-riding at a desperado speed that thrilled her youngest child and caused crowds in towns from Texas to Oregon to ‘stand up and clap.’)” Perry’s troubles after his parents separation may very well have contributed to his becoming a murderer later on down the road. The abrupt change in his life at such a young age, clearly had a lasting impact on him and his lifestyle. His past altered the way he thought and the type of person he was. Capote quotes,
1. “Then, touching the brim of his cap, he headed for home and the day’s work, unaware that it would be his last.” (page 15, paragraph 1)
In this story he gives the murderers their own sense of self and showed how they choose to deal with their lives. This also lets readers know that each person was different and that neither of them truly knew how to “be normal”, as most people would say, and live their own lives without causing trouble. Pushing the reader to form an opinion, biased or not, with the information that was given about each character by Capote. Capote through this all, did a great job of bringing the murderers to life for his reader and sharing the stories of each person that may not have been said by the media or anything else that gives people information about the world that is around them. Giving these characters lives and experiences were great parts to the story and is what ultimately gave the book its
Richard Mulcaster, a British instructor of English, once wrote, “Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward.” Mulcaster recognizes that both genetic and environmental factors determine the type of a person one becomes. Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood gives the reader an opportunity to see prime examples of how nature and nurture influence one’s character. Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood introduces the reader to two men; Richard Eugene Hickock known as Dick throughout the novel, and Perry Edward Smith whose lives of crime are almost identical; although both Perry and Richard come from very humble backgrounds, their childhood particularly their family life, has very little in common. It is not until later in their lives that we begin to see similarities between the two men. Despite their differences, Perry’s upbringing and Dick’s genetic disposition allow both men to share a disregard for life, which becomes apparent on the night they gruesomely burglarized and murdered four innocent members of the Clutter family.
In this day and age the term “murder” is coined as a word used in everyday language, albeit fifty years ago in the [rural] heartland of America, that word evoked emotion out of the entire town’s population. Prior to writing In Cold Blood, Truman Capote had written several pieces that lead him to writing a piece of literature that would infuse fiction and nonfiction, thus In Cold Blood was created, albeit after six years of research (“Truman” 84). "Truman Capote is one of the more fascinating figures on the American literary landscape, being one of the country's few writers to cross the border between celebrity and literary acclaim…He contributed both to fiction and nonfiction literary genres and redefined what it meant to join the otherwise separate realms of reporting and literature." ___ In Cold Blood takes place in the rural heartland in America, capturing the lives of the Clutter family in the days preceding their murder. The story shifts to the murderers, Dick Hickock, Perry Smith, and the lives of the men prior to the events that ultimately unfold in the murder of the Clutters, although the actual events of the murder are not revealed until later in the story through Perry’s flashbacks. At this point of the story the narration switches between the fugitives and the investigation lead by Detective Alvin Dewey of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood delineates justice in order to depict the disruption of an all-American society.
In Cold Blood tells an exact story of the murder of the clutter family that occurred in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. It consists of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children, Kenyon and Nancy, and the events that lead the killers to murder. The family was brutally killed, without any apparent reasons, by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The family was found shot to death, with very little items missing from the home. Capote read about the crime in The New York Times real soon after it had happened, and before the killers were caught, he began his work in Kansas, interviewing the people of Holcomb and doing extensive research with the help of his friend Harper Lee. Dick and Perry got away with the murders, because of the lack of clues and no personal connections with the murdered family. Perry Smith is a loner, a psychic cripple, almost from birth an outcast from society. Capote insists the reader’s sympathy for Perry Smith from the outset: Comparing him to wounded animals; described as a frightened “creature” than as a human being responsible for his actions (Hollowell 82). So much suffering could be taken and given by a single youthful human...
As In Cold Blood progresses, Capote slowly seems to discover the truth behind the murders and realize who Perry truly is. At first, Capote is debating whether or not Perry is the cold blooded killer everyone makes him out to be, or if his life choices were simply a product of his upbringing. Various quotes from Perry’s account of the killings show him both questioning himself and wanting to find a weapon. Capote’s description of Perry (for example, “He rubs his legs; the handcuffs rattle”) shows how nervous Perry is, and makes it seem as though he is having a hard
During his childhood, Perry experienced and was marked by brutality and lack of concern on the part of both parents (Capote 296). Dr. Jones gives a very detailed description of Perry's behavior. He says that Perry, who grew up without love, direction, or m...
Capote uses recurring themes in In Cold Blood to emphasize the role of family and egotism in criminals. “On their way, and never coming back - without regret, as far as he was concerned, for he was leaving nothing behind, and no one who might deeply wonder into what thin air he 'd spiraled. The same could not be said of Dick. There were those Dick claimed to love: three sons, a mother, a father, a brother,” (Capote 66). This quote is important because it shows the background of both Perry and Dick. Perry came from a “broken home” where no one had ever truly loved him, not even his father. Dick, on the other hand, came from a loving family, and the fact that he loved them back was a sign that he didn’t have a mental illness and he was rather committing these crimes for other reasons. The role of families is highlighted in a way that shows that while families can be a source of protection and love (such as the Clutters), a lack of one (Perry Smith) can make you a social misfit. Perry Smith had nothing to lose. On the other hand, Dick actually had a family who loved him. Both of these aspects give deeper insight into the characters and their minds. Egotism is also a motif within the novel. "Why should that sonofabitch have everything, while he had nothing? Why should that
Truman Capote finds different ways to humanize the killers throughout his novel In Cold Blood. He begins this novel by explaining the town of Holcomb and the Clutter family. He makes them an honest, loving, wholesome family that play a central role in the town. They play a prominent role in everyone’s lives to create better well-being and opportunity. Capote ends his beginning explanation of the plot by saying, “The suffering. The horror. They were dead. A whole family. Gentle, kindly people, people I knew --- murdered. You had to believe it, because it was really true” (Capote 66). Despite their kindness to the town, someone had the mental drive to murder them. Only a monster could do such a thing --- a mindless beast. However,
In Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, the Clutter family’s murderers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, are exposed like never before. The novel allows the reader to experience an intimate understanding of the murderer’s pasts, thoughts, and feelings. It goes into great detail of Smith and Hickock’s pasts which helps to explain the path of life they were walking leading up to the murder’s, as well as the thought’s that were running through their minds after the killings.
He grew up in a different environment with a broken family with no apparent dreams. As a young boy his parents separated and he was forced to go with his mother. He later ran away to be with his father who turned him down and ended up being abandoned by his family completely. He then came to stay at a catholic orphanage, where he was abused by nuns and caregivers. His father finally decided to take him into his care and together they got away and traveled, ending his education before passing the third grade which bothered him as he became older. Perry joined the marines and army, then came back to relocate his father. Him and his father had a breakthrough over starvation, leaving Perry with no one else to turn to and therefore getting involved in committing crimes. Once he got caught and jailed, his mother had died and his brother and sister had both committed suicide. By all his experiences we can say Perry definitely lived a different life and his family portrayal was very different from the Clutters. After so much abandonment and abuse, we can understand why he almost feels nothing and how growing up has affected him. The American Dream for Perry might not have been a “perfect family” but may have been to find something with order, and control. The dream Perry’s family would be focused on is reaching a decent life as their past has been
Capote's structure in In Cold Blood is a subject that deserves discussion. The book is told from two alternating perspectives, that of the Clutter family who are the victims, and that of the two murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The different perspectives allow the reader to relive both sides of the story; Capote presents them without bias. Capote masterfully utilizes the third person omniscient point of view to express the two perspectives. The non-chronological sequencing of some events emphasizes key scenes.