Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood both disturbs and surprises the reader as it thoroughly describes the deaths of the Clutter family in horrific detail and the proceeding hunt to find their murderers in order to enact justice. By combining journalistic style with his own novel writing expertise, Capote crafts a compelling story that forces the reader to empathize with both the residents of Holcombe who have suffered this massive loss and the killers who committed the heinous crime. In Cold Blood truly lives up to its reputation because of the empathetic connections Capote forms, the intertwining stories that are masterfully utilized, the sympathy the reader experiences for the killers and their troubled pasts, and the use of both personal accounts and facts.
By utilizing copious amounts of information about each character, the author effectively forms empathetic bonds with the Clutter family and the killers. This not only makes the murders seem more personal and harmful to the reader but also begins to humanize the killers. We also see the Clutter’s standing in
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Holcombe, which allows the reader to understand the unrest and outcry of the community after their death. Overall, it forces the reader to observe two views of the killers. One view is from the residents of Holcombe which perceive the killers as cold-hearted, compassionless murderers while the other view is from the narrator which observes the killers as more human and reasonable than many Holcombe residents would lead the reader to believe. This creates a dichotomy that Capote employs in generating doubt in the reader’s mind over the court’s ruling and the fact of whether they truly deserved the punishment they received. In Cold Blood effectively conveys multiple stories to the reader. Capote utilizes these intertwining stories to tell the reader the backstories and current whereabouts of the killers through their experiences as they run from the police. This helps generate the aforementioned dichotomy as we clearly see two views of the killers simultaneously. The reader also begins to form their sympathy for the killers because many of these stories detail the cruel and harsh upbringings of both men. Altogether, this makes the book a more exciting and thoughtful read. Perhaps one of Capote’s greatest achievements is eliciting sympathy from the reader when reading In Cold Blood.
We learn of the Perry’s troubled and tragic childhood and the hardships he has had to face in his home life, relationships, and in stays at both an orphanage and jail. He also lost two of his siblings to suicide and suffers utter rejection from his father. This all culminates into Perry’s diagnosed mental illness which is overshadowed by the trial. Sympathy is harder to find for Dick who has had a relatively normal life. However, because Dr. Jones states, “He had a serious head injury with concussion and several hours of unconsciousness in 1950,” (pg. 294) I found myself feeling remorseful for believing he was merely a killer of his own volition. By the end of the book, I was convinced that these two had executed an appalling crime but faced a biased trial that failed to appropriately enact
justice. Lastly, Capote effortlessly combines personal accounts and facts to enrich the story. As a reader, I felt more interested in the personal lives of the Clutters and the killers when a local resident related their versions directly to me. Capote also prevents the book from becoming a boring slog by using more than just facts and involving a wide variety of voices and opinions. Truly, this makes In Cold Blood all the better at relating the story of the murdered Clutter family in a unique and interesting fashion. In conclusion, Truman Capote accomplishes a thrilling tale of murder, fear, and justice by utilizing the reader’s empathy and sympathy with the characters, multiple connecting storylines, and a combined use of personal reports and facts. Together, these made this an exhilarating read from start to finish that I will certainly not forget anytime soon. For my first true crime book, I was surprised at the impact Capote was able to create through these events and I would recommend this to anyone new to the genre.
In Cold Blood is the true story of a multiple murder that rocked the small town of Holcomb, Kansas and neighboring communities in 1959. It begins by introducing the reader to an ideal, all-American family, the Clutters; Herb (the father), Bonnie (the mother), Nancy (the teenage daughter), and Kenyon (the teenage son). The Clutters were prominent members of their community who gained admiration and respect for their neighborly demeanors.
In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the author skillfully orders information and articulates his word choice in order to successfully tell the story. Capote chooses to include certain events before others to show the reader the development of the case caused a change in the overall feelings of characters such as Alvin Dewey. Alvin, the detective who desperately searched for the Clutter killers reads, “on the first page of the Kansas City Star, a headline he had long awaited: Die On Rope For Bloody Crime,” which portrays to the reader that he was relieved after months to know that they were sentenced to death. (337) By including the word choice “he had long awaited” the reader may assume that he is pleased by this outcome. (337) However,
Perry Smith did not live the happy childhood that he deserved, abandoned by his family at a young age he was forced to live at a terrible orphanage. “The one where Black Widows were always at me. Hitting me. Because of wetting the bed...They hated me, too.” (Capote 132). In this specific orphanage, Perry was beaten by the nuns that own the place. The short sentences within this quote truly emphasize the dramatic and horrible conditions that Perry had to live with in the orphanage. Sympathy is created ...
The disruption of an all-American society plays a key factor in In Cold Blood because of the effect it has on the story. In Holcomb, Kansas, the community’s order is disrupted through the murdering of the Clutter family. “Nevertheless, when the community lost the ...
In the novel, In Cold Blood, Truman Capote sculpts a plot that leaves the reader with a dark, tingling sensation of suspense despite the reader’s foreknowledge of events. He electrifies the passage using precise imagery, selective perspective/point of view, and cold-blooded foreshadowing.
The contrast between the dark introductory scene with that of the quiet farmhouse scene helps to build the difference between the outsider (Capote) and his new friends at the party. His rather charismatic and friendly rapport endears him to the crow encircling him to hear his juicy tales about Jimmy Baldwin; who seemingly has a new novel in its final stage. This chatter seems to be his initial entry strategy into this rather quiet Holcombe town, Kansas. He therefore meticulously uses his friendly stature coupled by odd mannerisms, and the welcoming nature of the locals to go about his investigative business.
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...
In Cold Blood, a novel written by Truman Capote and published in 1966, is, though written like fiction, a true account of the murder of the Clutter family of Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. This evocative story illuminates new insights into the minds of criminals, and how society tends to act as a whole, and achieves its purpose by utilizing many of the techniques presented in Thomas C. Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In In Cold Blood, Capote uses symbols of escape and American values, and recurring themes of egotism and family to provide a new perspective on crime and illustrate an in-depth look at why people do the things they do.
The detailed account of the killers’ childhoods makes the reader sympathize with the Clutter family’s killers Smith and Hickock. Should they reserve the death penalty? Did Truman Capote take a stand on the death penalty? By giving the reader a detailed account of Perry Smith’s and Dick Hickock’s childhood, Capote sets up the reader for a nurture vs. nature debate on the death penalty. The question then becomes, do the effects (if any) caused by environment in childhood make for a trained killer or a natural born one?
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 November 15, 1959, Richard "Dick" Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith were motivated to kill four members of a highly well- respected family for a safe that supposedly contained thousand dollars. The gruesome murders of the Clutters occurred on an isolated village located in southern west of Kansas, which provoked members of the community to begin to suspect whether someone in Holcomb committed such action since the crime appeared to be senseless. Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, explains how the people in the village were tormented and devastated because of the murders that took place. Capote emphasizes the result the murders had on Holcomb by using dashes to describe the scene and setting.
Brian Conniff's article, "Psychological Accidents: In Cold Blood and Ritual Sacrifice," explains how Truman Capote's nonfiction novel demonstrates the psychological trauma that the murderers and the townspeople of Holcomb face after the murders of the Clutter family. Conniff begins his article by stating that in the last twenty-five years imprisonment and execution has reached an all-time high level of obsession among the American public. Since this type of violence has been so normalized it is rarely properly understood (1). With this in mind, prison literature has continually suggested that "the most fortified barriers are not the physical walls and fences between the prison, and the outside world; the most fortified barriers are the psychological walls between the preoccupations of everyday life . . .and the conscious realization that punishment is the most self-destructive kind of national addiction" (Conniff 1).
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.
In the nonfiction novel, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote, the author tells a story of the murderers and victims of a slaughter case in Holcomb, Kansas. Instead of writing a book on the murder case as a crime report, the author decides to write about the people. The people we learn about are the killers, Dick and Perry, and the murdered family, the Clutters. The author describes how each family was and makes the portrayals of Dick and Perry’s family different from the Clutters.The portrayal of the Clutters and of Dick and Perry’s families, was used to describe what the American Dream was for each character. In the beginning we learn about what type of family the Clutters were and how they represented the American Dream for the people of Holcomb.
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.