Capote vs a Good Man Is Hard to Find

What stands out from the beginning is that although he, Mr. Clutter owned his property and had recently taken out a large insurance policy he really was not as wealthy as depicted in the story. The two committed the murder of the Clutter Family for no particular reason. After several years on the run Hickock and Smith are captured, found guilty and sent to prison. “After a total of five years Dick and Perry are hanged on April 15, 1965. Capote, “was accused of getting the story wrong by Esquire magazine writer Philip K. Tompkins in a June 1966 piece titled “In Cold Fact.” Capote, exaggerate many of the facts, in an attempt to reach a larger audience. Gerald Clarke, author of “his sympathetic 1988 book, Capote: A Biography” states “Since events had not provided him with a happy scene, he was forced to make one up.” Truman Capote, felt the need to interject a happier version to the story, that is one of the reasons many myths were added to the

The Clutter family is written in a fashion to show they were the normal American family and by fate were entangled with killers (Hollowell 83). Hollowell states, Capote creates a "mythic dimension" through this portrayal (83). The dimension shows the reader how this crime completely disturbs the community of Holcomb and an

Capote goes to great efforts to show the admiration which the community held for the Clutter family, one of the elements which made the murders so shocking. Everybody socialized with the Clutter family. For example, Mr. Clutter's friend Mrs. Ashida felt comfortable telling Mr. Clutter her conflict with her husband regarding the Ashida family's possible move, confiding that people like his family are the reason she wishes to stay in Holcomb.

He described in great detail the murders and emotion of each family member, the background of the murderers, and the heartbroken town of Holcomb, Kansas. He gathered the information from his experience while investigating the crime with the police. He had questioned members of the community and the murderers. Capote was a credible source that captured and revealed the truth and emotion of the Clutter case in his non-fiction book. He wrote and structured the book with great detail and syntax to appeal to the reader. He contained his own opinions on the death penalty and connection between Hickock and Smith. Capote truly wrote an amazing novel based on a true murder case. His life was forever changed after launching this best-selling book full of secrets and

Many people say the documentation of the murder of the Clutter family is Truman Capote’s best work. It started out as an article for The New Yorker, and evolved into the non-fiction novel; the first of its kind. Capote traveled to Kansas with friend Harper Lee to research the killings. In the course of six years bringing this narrative together, Capote began taking drugs and drinking heavily due to the dark nature of the book. Truman Capote tells the true story of a family murdered in In Cold Blood, through character analysis and symbolism to prove nature is a stronger force than nature in shaping a person’s character.

Capote purposefully detaches himself from this section of the story, allowing the only sense of sympathy come from those who personally knew the Clutters. Because Capote is not able to form a personal relationship with any members of the Clutter family, he simply chooses to briefly explain the family’s murder and shift his attention to the murderers instead. The Clutters all-American image could not rescue them from tragedy and instead of portraying the family as victims, Capote focuses on attempting to encourage the audience to remain optimistic on their views regarding the family’s murderers.

Capote wrote about real people and those real people have to live with the backlash that Capote’s work brewed up through its years of fame. The Clutters, their friends, the agents, and even the murderers were all real people with real feelings, not a character in a book. In a true fiction, a writer can twist and mold their characters into whoever they like. They can make things up about them without consequences because they aren’t real. However, Capote didn’t write a fiction novel; he wrote a “nonfiction” novel. Characters that he wrongly portrayed left a lasting scar on the memory of the real person. The two surviving daughters of Herd and Bonnie Clutter were furious with the portrayal of their mother as an invalid and Rev. James Post told

Capote is able to show a more sympathetic side by looking into the lives of the Clutter family, giving background knowledge to the reader. Sympathy is felt when you realize that they were killed for an unjustifiable reason and obviously did not deserve to die. Technically,

They seemed to be doing everything more than exceptional in compliance to the dream; Mr. Clutter was “always certain of what he wanted from the world and indeed he had in large obtained it” (Capote 7). Despite this, their world comes crashing down due to seemingly unforeseeable circumstances. Capote shows that even the "perfect" family is not unsusceptible to tragedy and disaster. Correspondingly neither is “the village of Holcomb that stands on the high wheat plains of Western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.”’(Capote 1) Crashing into that perfect small-town of come a couple of characters who, unlike the Clutter’s, had not exactly had the good fortune to have stable or prosperous home lives.

When reading “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” my foremost impression is that it’s a very suspenseful story. The writing has a sort of still and detached feeling to it that makes the reader feel like an outsider. While character thoughts are occasionally stated, motivations aren’t openly shown and it’s hard to find much character development unless careful examination is made. Being interested in psychology, I found these nuances interesting. Even so, I initially didn’t find the characters likable. The grandmother, for instance, is very self-centered. When she mentions that there’s a murderer running loose in the family’s designated vacation area, she doesn’t do so out of concern. Rather, she just wants to go somewhere else and is “seizing at every chance to change [her son’s] mind.” When her family begins getting killed, she never begs for their lives, but is preoccupied with pleading for her own, telling the Misfit that he “ought not to shoot a lady” (348).

Capote using the neighbors point on view when talking about the Clutter family makes the reader like the Clutter family. Even if the Clutter family was not the best family on the inside when other people saw them for example their neighbors, friends, and family all they saw was a close family that could do no wrong. Even though Mrs.Clutter was not the most stable women the way people perceived that family and talked about them made the readers like and admire the Clutter family. While all the neighbors knew about the murders was that they killed a happy family with four lovely kids who were also a joy to have in Holcomb. If Capote chose to tell the point of view through Perry’s and Dick’s family, friends and neighbors the reader would

In Kansas of the year 1959, there happened to be murders of a pretty popular family in a small town called Holcomb. These murders led to an extremely intense investigation. Truman wrote a nonfiction book about this whole situation, his story follows the lives of the murderers before, during and after murders took place. It also shows the panic and anxiety of the citizens who also lived in Holcomb, and finally the consequences the murderers received. The famous author Truman Capote used rhetorical devices such as foreshadowing, symbolism and imagery to set an intended tone and enhance his writing style.

A family of four murdered to death; slaughtered, a Renowned writer Truman Capote wanted to study this murder and write a book about it. Capote tends to use a lot of imagery conveying the town, “Holcomb, Kansas” which the family of four were massacred in. Vivid description was not the only thing that capote utilized, there were many more rhetorical devices as well. Starting off Capote views the town as lonely, not much to it, not really being an attractive town. The Clutter family murder was essentially the only thing that caused attention to the town.

Truman Capote, magnified the background of the clutter family through the use of amplification as a a way to get to know the family and to see how everything changed after they died. Capote went though each member of the Clutter family that was killed starting with the father, Herbert Clutter,”...His shoulders were broad, his hair had held its dark color, his square-jawed, confident face retained a healthy-hued youthfulness, and his teeth, unstained and strong enough to shatter walnuts, were still intact… Ordinarily, Mr. Clutter’s mornings began at six-thirty; clanging milk pails…”(Capote 6). The additional, address of detail is not needed for the story’s

It’s rather impossible to fully remove yourself from your work; to provide a filtered, unbiased approach to anything. But, Truman Capote feels he did just that in his non fiction recount of the Clutter murders. The town of Holcomb became nationally, if not internationally known on November 15th, 1959, after the four family members were found bound and shot. Countless times Capote has been questioned on how realistic the books’ accounts are, and he always assures his readers that he was there to simply write down the facts. However, it’s easy to see that despite how real it seems, Capote took his artistry over the lives affected by both his presence and the case itself. Truman plays coy, he lies to himself constantly so he can still believe