Truman Capote joined the few authors who expanded upon their journalistic styles, when he published In Cold Blood in 1965. This non-fiction novel follows the story of a wealthy, well-liked farm family, the Clutters, in Kansas and how their lives tragically ended. Readers not only receive a glimpse of the Clutters’ life before they were killed but the lives of their killers before, during, and after the crime. The thoughts of the investigating team along with other Kansas townsfolk are also revealed. It is evident throughout the expanse of the novel’s 410 pages that Capote was able to develop a relationship with the murderers, investigators and the townsfolk of Holcomb, Kansas. His ability to sympathize with everyone around him was crucial …show more content…
in making this novel the success that it has turned out to be; a true American classic. Capote also is blessed with his ability to manipulate words, causing the reader to think, feel, or believe something completely opposite of the impending outcome. Using this gift throughout the duration of the novel, he keeps readers interested in the story over forty years after it was written. The time and effort spent to develop the characteristics of the two murderers and his use of many different points of view are a few of the many reasons this novel has withstood the test of time. When analyzing the character Richard Eugene Hickock, or Dick, one of the Clutter family murderers, readers perceive him as sly and selfish. Being the one to plan the crime against the Clutters, Dick also took the matters of the getaway into his own hands. Revealing his true selfish nature, he writes bad checks in order to escape to Mexico. One scene of the book not only depicts Dick as selfish, but it also shows his sly actions when his partner, Perry, described him when writing one of the bad checks, “Smooth. Smart. Yes, you had to hand it to him,” (Capote 114) as Dick cunningly talked a pawn shop clerk out of money, “for he produced a blank check, and when Dick made it out for eighty dollars more than the bill totaled, [the clerk] instantly paid over the difference in cash” (Capote 115). His sly personality remains the same even after being arrested by the police on a charge of breaking parole. He possessed a fully detailed alibi containing a trip to see Perry’s sister in Fort Scott, a night with prostitutes in “Fun Haven”, and the list of towns and hotels they visited, including “Apache, El Paso, Corpus Christi, Santillo San Luis Potosî, Acapulco…” just to name a few (Capote 261-263). His preparedness and coolness under pressure enhances his true deceitful nature to the reader. In the end, the reader remembers Dick’s selfishness when the full extent of the crime against the Clutter family was revealed. Dick had come to rob from the Clutter family safe, but when there was no safe to be found Mr. Clutter offered to write a check. Not being the outcome he wanted, “Dick just blew up - ‘What kind of Mongolians do you think we are?’” (Capote 282). Not taking no for an answer, Dick is later quoted saying, “’I know goddam well you got a safe. And I’ll find it before I leave here” (Capote 283). He kept to his word, and before they left the pair had ransacked the house only to find forty dollars. Out of rage and desire to dispose of witnesses, the Clutters were murdered but surprisingly not by the sly and selfish Dick Hickock. The person who actually murdered the family was Perry Smith, an honest, pure man who was easily manipulated. Capote includes bits and pieces of Perry’s childhood in order for the reader to sympathize with the criminal, leading them to buy into his pure, childlike innocence. After Perry’s parents divorced, he was sent off to various foster homes and boarding schools where he recounts the following memory, “I had weak kidneys & wet the bed every night. This was very humiliating to me, but I couldn’t control myself. I was very severely beaten by the cottage mistress, who had called me names and made fun of me in front of all the boys” (Capote 328). An adolescent boy still wetting the bed doesn’t seem like a murderer to the average reader, but that is the point the author was trying to make. Capote brings Perry’s story to light throughout the novel to ensure that the reader’s sympathy for the accused would continue to grow. Readers also find sympathy for Perry as they find he is easily manipulated. One example of being manipulated is when he recounts how he first ended up in jail. Perry was traveling to Massachusetts to meet up with an old army buddy who offered to help him get a good paying job. Hitch hiking his way there, Perry encountered some “bad company” (Capote 162) when he made it to Kansas. Readers are able to predict a bad outcome when Perry led off the story with, “I don’t even recall his first name” (Capote 162). It was the other gentleman’s suggestion to “burglarize a nearby building” (Capote 153). Later, after being caught and incarcerated, Perry’s past partner, “discovered an open window, climbed out of it, stole a car, and drove northwest to McCook, Nebraska” (Capote 153). Although readers can’t completely feel remorse for Perry as he did agree to go along with the law-breaking activity, they are meant to be saddened when he states, “We both made the FBI’s Wanted list. But far as I know, they never caught up to him” (Capote 163). By including that detail in the story, Capote is able to reach into the hearts and minds of his readers to ensure compassion towards the alleged murderer. Many other examples of Perry’s personable traits are cited throughout the book. Combining all of those factors, the reader is shocked when Perry’s honesty gets the best of him and confesses Dick “was holding the knife. I asked him for it, and he gave it to me… But I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound… The man would have died anyway, I know that, but I couldn’t leave him like he was… Then I aimed the gun. The room just exploded” (Capote 290). He later confesses to the three other murders. Therefore, throughout the story, Perry Smith certainly demonstrates being pure and honest yet easily manipulated. However, he establishes those traits in ways that weren’t always wholesome. One of the main reasons for this book’s fame isn’t necessarily the characters and their development, but the way that Capote uses many differing points of view to advance the story.
Using a third-person omniscient perspective, Capote was able to take the reader inside the minds and thoughts of many different characters and he used this to his advantage. From main characters to side characters, Capote found differing outlooks on multiple situations. For example, readers were able to witness the Clutter family’s last living hours, such as Nancy going through “her beauty routine, a cleansing, creaming ritual, which on Saturday nights included washing her hair” (Capote 66), while being able to view the murderers approach to the home as “the car crept forward” (Capote 68). A similar experience was granted during the investigation. On one page, readers shared the same frustrations with a detective on the case when “He was too tense to sleep… None of his ‘leads’ had led anywhere” (Capote 121). Yet just six pages later, the readers were transported to Mexico with the murderers relaxed on the roadside where they “had stopped to picnic” (Capote 127). By providing contrasting and completely opposite points of view, Capote is able to give the reader a more rounded experience of the book, not leaving any leaf of the Clutters’ story
unturned. As you can see, Capote’s use of many points of view, along with developing the two murderers throughout the novel has ensured that In Cold Blood will continue to be relevant. By allowing the readers to experience the crime from every viewpoint, Capote allows them to be fully immersed in the story, captivating audiences for decades. Similarly, the mind manipulation used when discussing the Clutter family’s killers maintains the readers’ attention and has qualified the book to be used in language arts classrooms across the nation. Both of those examples were made possible due to his ability to sympathize with the people involved in the crime and his mastery to relay that to the reader. Therefore, In Cold Blood, and in turn its author, Truman Capote, has rightfully earned its place on the shelf of classic American novels.
Capote’s structure throughout the entire book created an excellent backbone to tell the two alternating perspectives of the book that is of the victims; the clutter family and the murders; Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. This allowed Capote to not have a bias towards the accounts being told. The pattern of victims then the murderers causes an attractive puzzle where the reader collects an amount of information leading to the climax of the actual slaughter. He actually contin...
And finally, as the story concludes, you feel through Capote's careful presentation of the facts, that we are participants of the trial ourselves. We experience the witnesses testimony only when the jurors and spectators do so themselves. Having the author reserve vital information so that we learn only what the community learns, when they learn it, offers the opportunity for us to experience genuine emotions as the events unfold.
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,
The book, In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, was a very interesting book to read. In Cold Blood is about two men who brutally murdered the Clutter family in their own home. The crime took place on November 15, 1959 in the small town by the name of Holcomb. According to investigators, there was no motive to the crime at all. Throughout the book, the murder takes place, the investigation goes on, the trail was held and then the execution of the killers is described. The two murderers of the Clutter family were Richard Hickock, who went by the name of Dick, and Perry Smith. Throughout the book, Perry Smith was a very held back character, his upbringing wasn’t the greatest which may have played a role in the murder. Analyzing Perry Smith on his personality, his childhood and how he grew up, and what he was like before the murder will hopefully help to better understand why Perry did what he did to the Clutter family. Perry Smith was one of the cold blood killers of the Clutter family, why did it come to such a brutal ending?
This lesson will examine the impact of Harper Lee on Truman Capote 's true-crime novel, 'In Cold Blood. ' Lee helped her childhood friend with much of the research for the book, although she was not credited when the book was published.
and at one point, had a gun pointed to his head. Also there appears to be
Truman Capote establishes respect and trust in what he writes from with audience, ethos, through the use of an extensive variety of facts and statistics, logos. Capote uses so many dates, times, and other facts about the crime committed in the book and the subsequent investigation that the reader has to believe what the author is writing. The use of all these facts shows that Capote did his research and he interviewed, questioned, and obtained the opinions of every person that even slightly important to crime itself and the investigation/trial. The author is obviously very meticulous when it comes to dates and times; every important event in the book has a date and sometimes even a time of day to go with it. Some examples of dates included were the day of the murders (November 15th, 1959), dates of when Perry and Dick were here or there (December 31th, 1959- a small restaurant in Texas or noon on December 25th, 1959- beach in Miami Florida), date when the two criminals were apprehended (January 1st, 1960), dates when they were brought from this prison to that one and finally when they were brought to death’s row (April, 1960). Other small facts are also used by the author, like facts about the criminal’s early lives or experiences that they had, which could only have been obtained through extensive interviews with Perry and Dick. The use of all these logos by Capote establishes strong ethos, showing the reader that the author did more than enough research to show that he has the knowledge to write a whole book on the subject.
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,
Truman began the novel with a chapter of exposition. His main purpose of this segment was to describe the victims, which he did by writing in an ominous tone. This tone acting primarily as a foreshadowing of what the reader knew would come. Capote was heightening the suspense. The readers knew the Clutters would die, but the family lived blissfully oblivious of what was yet to come. Capote often executed this ominous tone by stating that it would be Mr. Clutters last day, or Nancy's last pie etc. This only heighted the anticipation, the tension, and of course the expectation of what was yet to come. Finally, nearing the end of the chapter, Capote continues with the ominous tone by switching viewpoints between the victims and the murders. As the actual murder grew closer, the viewpoints switched more rapidly. This gave the readers an almost simultaneous, birds-eye view of the Clutters' fate. Over all, this ominous tone definitely slanted in support for the victims. A reader could only find himself loathing the murderers who committed this monstrous crime. However, this loathing changes as the tone changes.
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.
Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, was a breakthrough in literacy in that it was accredited as the first non-fiction novel. There was a lot of controversy when the book was first published because of the incredibility of the work. This could be expected in that time, because people where not familiar with the concept of non-fiction novels yet, but this is where the beauty of this style of writing lies, the recreation of the truth. It would have been impossible for Capote to have documented the occurrence fully, because he only read about the murder after it had happen, after all, this was not what he wanted to do. Capote got a lot of criticism for the book, because of him bending the truth, putting in scenes that never happened and his ways of gathering information, but people still saw the talent that went into creating the non-fiction novel. Truman Capote will forever be recognized for this novel and the contribution he made to literacy. In this essay we will be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of In Cold Blood when it delivers facts and the credibility of the work. We will also be discussing the strengths and weaknesses of the novel when Capote bends reality and ad some parts of fiction.
In 1966, Truman Capote published the novel In Cold Blood that pierced the boundaries of literary genres, as he narrated the events of the 1959 Clutter family massacre in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas and the quest that took place afterwards through the perspectives both the murderers and those looking for them. As Capote bends these genre normalities, he ventures with the killers and the detectives and describes the murderers’ lives in-depth to further characterize Dick Hickock and Perry Smith--their psychological states and the possible contributing factors to their undeniable personality disorders. The two killers are ultimately diagnosed by a mental health professional with mental illnesses rather than chronic personality disorders,
Violence in a community consequentially causes a community to unite and encourages its people to display good morals. Truman Capote displays the importance of virtues and morals throughout In Cold Blood. As a deadly murder unfolds Capote utilizes the real life scenario to show how the background of two killers and the reactions of townspeople play a role in this case. The redemptive community and family affiliated exemplifies the importance of proper morals while the perpetrators of the crime create examples of unethical decisions. Although people object to poor morals displayed in the nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, the use of this book in schools is appropriate in grades eleven and twelve because it discredits the bad morals that are portrayed.