Summary: In Truman Capote‘s, In Cold Blood, the story of the 1959 Clutter Family murder is revealed. The audience is introduced to Perry Smith and Dick Hickock as they tune their car and acquire both a shotgun and a knife to rob Herbert Clutter of his “vast” fortune hidden, in what they assumed to be, a safe. Little did these men know that Herb’s fortune was hidden in the checks he used in substitute for money, and by the time they came to this realization, it was too late. What was supposed to be a simple and easy robbery turned into a ruthless homicide when the partner’s carried out their promise to kill any witnesses remaining. Eventually, after being tied up, the Clutter family was ruthlessly killed by the fatal click of a gun. Leaving with about fifty dollars, Perry and Dick escaped to Mexico and left authorities clueless until a former prison associate by the name of Floyd Wells informed the police that he believed the crime was committed by Dick Hickock due to their prior conversations regarding the Clutter’s wealth and lifestyle. As Perry and Dick returned to the states in hope of finding more money, they were caught, arrested, and eventually hung for the crimes they committed.
5 Quotes:
“The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of Western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’”(3).
“I was exploring the emotional background. I thought the answer might be another woman—a triangle. Well, consider: Mr. Clutter was a fairly young,
Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" is the story of Perry and Dick and the night of November 15, 1959. This investigative, fast-paced and straightforward documentary provides a commentary on the nature of American violence and examines the details of the motiveless murders of four members of the Clutter family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers.
Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood with the intention of creating a new non-fiction genre, a creative spin on a newspaper article with the author, and his opinions and judgments completely absent from the text, leaving only the truth for the reader to interpret. The pages of In Cold Blood are filled with facts and first-hand accounts of the events surrounding the brutal murder of a wealthy unsuspecting family in Holcomb, Kansas. Author Truman Capote interviewed countless individuals to get an accurate depiction of every one affected by and every side of the murder. Although he declares himself an unbiased and opinion-free author, based on the extensive descriptions of one of the murderers, Perry Smith, there is much debate about this
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.
The dynamic partnership between Dick and Perry stems from their egos, or lack thereof. Perry is especially self-conscious, and his behavior as presented in the book is due to his sense of lacking and
Truman Capote writes a genius book about a real murder that happened and he tore the case apart to find out every detail that happened in the crime. In Cold Blood is about two men who almost get away with a hostile murder of a family. How a lead detective on the case gets so pressured about finding these men. It is also about the anxiety that these murders put on the killers because one of them is afraid they are going to get caught. The town that turns on each other and locks their doors at night and prays no one comes in. Capote’s purpose in this book was sympathizing with the killer and all the other people in the book, also in the book he presents foreshadowing, and Pathos, he has many other Rhetorical Strategies but these are the important Strategies.
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.
Crime and glimpses into the heads of criminal masterminds has always been something that fascinates people. Although crime is a terrible thing, the complexity and intricacy of it is something that people love to hear about. One can turn on the news at any given time and almost certainly hear an account of some form of a crime within ten minutes. In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, an account to a perplexing crime is taken to a whole new level. The Clutter family was a charming family of four that lived in the little town of Holcomb, Kansas. They were brutally murdered with no apparent motive by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, two men that had
Set in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, In Cold Blood recounts the real-life murder of the Clutter family, following the last moments of the four victims, investigation, court and trial, and the execution of the two convicted, Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock.
1: What is the central argument the writer makes in your book? For example: “[Author name] argues that . . . because . . .”
As part of your summer assignment, you will read In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. You may purchase the book on your own or you may borrow a school copy of it. Read closely and annotate your text. Annotations will not be collected, but this is an educational and intellectual habit that you want to begin if you haven’t already.
part of the movie moved a little slowly, but I think this was necessary to show
In the final months of 1959, the Clutter family was brutally murdered in their Holcomb, Kansas, home. Reports of their murders made national news. One of these headlines captured the attention of Truman Capote who chose to pursue the story further; eventually, after years of research and thousands of pages of notes, he penned In Cold Blood. It was first published in 1966, and it found immediate success. Capote’s original storytelling methods combined with the sensationalism of the crime was instrumental in creating, at the very least, popularizing a new genre: creative nonfiction. Utilizing unique narrative structure and author-tainted character development, Capote weaves a tale that questions the authenticity, the intent, and the meaning of justice.
The captivating story of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a beautifully written piece describing the unveiling of a family murder. This investigative, fast-paced and straightforward documentary provides a commentary of such violence and examines the details of the motiveless murders of four members of the Clutter family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and execution of the killers. As this twisted novel unravels, Capote defines the themes of childhood influences relevant to the adulthood of the murderers, opposite personalities, and nature versus nurture.
In "Murder, He Wrote," William Swanson believes the stylistic techniques employed in Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood are more memorable than the story itself. For Swanson, Capote not only captures the readers' attention with a story about a horrific crime, but his use of diverse voices, sounds, and silences make it an event people will never forget.
Truman Capote is described in the biography section of the book as being born in 1924 in New Orleans. He, over his lifetime, wrote a variety of works from short stories to memoirs. In the acknowledgments, he says that the information presented in the book “is taken from official records or is the result of interviews.” He then goes on to mention some of the important people to help make the book happen like the members of Finney County, the place where the event happened, and notable members of institutions like Kansas State University and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. Capote did not find any of the information first hand, nor is he from the state in which the crime occurred. He simply wrote a clear account of what happened by using interviews and police notes after the fact. Truman Capote’s relationship to the topic was simply that he volunteered to be the voice of a case that otherwise might not have been heard throughout the country and around the world in full detail and for years to come.