Literary Techniques In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood encompasses varying stylistic methods in the text and also allows the readers to understand his view of the setting: Holcomb, Kansas. An uneventful town he portrayed as futureless. “The inhabitants of the village, numbering two hundred and seventy, were satisfied that this should be so, quite content to exist in ordinary life…” Through Capote’s use of literary techniques such as imagery, detail, tone, and syntax, he paints a rather lonesome and unfixable image.

The imagery he uses describes Holcomb “to a T” and allows the readers to imagine they were standing right in the center of the story. For example, Capote writes, “After rain, or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust into the direst mud.” You can basically smell the fresh rain in the air and feel the mud underneath your shoes. This type of literary method can make readers care about every word in the story. Capote also describes the farmland and the grain that is wisped by wind, which allows people to imagine seeing it for themselves and feeling the sensation of wind on their own skin.

He weaves elaborate descriptions in his writing to further fascinate people. “Down by the depot, the postmistress, a gaunt woman who wears a rawhide jacket and denims and cowboy boots, presides over a falling-apart post office.” Capote could’ve just said, “By the depot, a woman presides over a post office.” However, by doing this, there isn’t much interest in the woman. The writer actually caught the interest by delineating the woman so fittingly. Words such as “ramshackle” and “haphazard” are additionally used to explain how the town is in