In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis

620 Words2 Pages

Although Capote illustrates the horror of the murders, he must first show how it was a dinky, dull, and unextraordinary farm town; therefore, he masterfully paints it to be a rural town of no particular qualities of individuality, besides its monotony and state of disrepair. His views of the town as derelict and a place of tedium can be quite obvious when one examines his diction. Capote describes the streets of Holcomb as “unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust into the direst mud”. The specific diction or unnamed, unshaded, and unpaved are those that bring about connotations of a bumpy dirt road that one would find in the middle of nowhere. Capote intentionally used that to add the feel of the run-down state of the town …show more content…

He describes the state of affairs of, what used to be, the town Bank to further the view of the town. He wrote, “Nearby is another building with an irrelevant sign, this one in flanking gold on a dirty window--Holcomb Bank”. The description of the Bank as unkempt is especially important because in most towns, it is one of the best conditioned buildings, which just goes to show the state of affairs in Holcomb. He adds even more to the image when he explains how it does not even serve as a bank in the present time, it can been converted into an apartment. The explanation is just another piece in the puzzle of the seemingly dinky, make-shift town. The final nail in the coffin is the imagery used for the “melancholy” post office. It is a “falling-apart post office” with “peeling sulphur-colored paint” that is presided over by a “gaunt woman who wears a rawhide jacket and denims and cowboy boots”. Then entire image is of an unofficial shack like building that reminds the reader of shed. The peeling paint just adds to the dinky vibe of the town, while the description of the female post officer serves the purpose of the unofficial and rural ‘make do’ attitude of the town. All of this imagery is for Capote to show his opinion of the town as a place of no happenings of a modern city’s its bustle and

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