Cold Blood By Truman Capote

Truman Capote, the infamous mid – century American author in his nonfiction literary novel, in cold blood shows the Clutter family, a stereotypical southern family. Capote demonstrates this tragic story by telling about their last moments. The devices that Capote uses in the novel is the gentleness and sophistication. The audience was mainly towards those in the surrounding communities of Holcomb, Kansas and to those around the nation that wanted to know the feelings , and feel closely acquainted to the Clutter family, and be able to hear each and everyone’s background from the Clutter family to the murderers.

This is not the case with Dick or Perry. It is similar to when one is putting a puzzle together and two very different colored pieces fit together to make a whole. It is unexpected and makes people think. Like the puzzle, Perry’s background defies expectation. The fact that he was beaten for something he could not control creates sympathy for Perry.

Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood (1963), implies that the death penalty should only be used as a last resort.

To prove that outside influences are to blame for Perry’s actions, Capote first employs metaphor and parallel structure in order to place the blame on Perry’s partner, Dick. While Perry is waiting for Dick to come back to the laundromat in Kansas, where Perry was waiting, Perry starts to panic and imagine that maybe the police found his partner. Upon Dick’s return, Perry states that “The sound of Dick’s voice was like an injection of some potent narcotic, a drug, that invading his veins, produced a delirium of colliding sensations; tension and relief, fury and affection” (Capote 194). By comparing Dick’s voice to a “narcotic”, and the parallelism of “tension and relief, fury and affection,” conveys that he was like a potent drug and one that Perry was addicted

Perry’s anxiety towards the crime leads him to not eating the “untouchable hamburger and a glass of root beer in which three aspirin were dissolving.” Perry Smith does not doubt that one way or another, the police department will get hold of the two criminals “Perry and Dick.”

Less complex of a character than Perry Smith, Dick Hickock undoubtedly deals with conflict in the latter part of his life that causes his mental state of mind to become impaired. Hickock, unlike Smith, endures a fair childhood. He is born into a “semi-poor” home, in which his parents rarely fight (Capote 277). Indeed, he respects his parents, and in turn, they prove loving toward him throughout his life. Involved in copious sports and attaining mostly A’s, his future seems bright. However, with no real money to pursue a college education, he turns toward the workforce. At his second job, he is involved in a car accident, which leads to the ruin of his mental state. Left for several hours unconscious, and with a “serious head injury,” he was not, as his father stated, “the same boy” (Capote 166, 294).

Literature, the dictionary defines it being the art of written works that is simultaneously designed to entertain, educate and instruct its audience; writers, using their skill of telling stories, use literature in an attempt to transfer their ideas from paper to the reader; for some, this task means bringing their story to a different place and time that is entirely separate from what the could be perceive as ordinary, on order to serve the writer’s intent. With this, the impossible, becomes the probable, and the worst fear imagined becomes the breathed reality; with no separation between the truth, and fiction. The word “literature” in itself cannot be accurately defined, and by attempting to do so, it limits the word not only in its

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

Although Perry and Dick start out alike with an equal goal, the differences in their nature become vividly clear through Capote’s writing; therefore, Dick is shown as a sinister and more rancorous person than Perry. Dick’s true intentions are shown through his feelings by using amplification. Dick creates a unique plan to generate money for himself and within that, he plans to leave Perry. Dick reveals his plan, saying “That was half the plot; the second half was: Goodbye, Perry. Dick was sick of him-his harmonica, his aches, and ills, his superstitions, the weepy, womanly eyes, the nagging, whispering voice.

In In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the device of juxtaposition is used to contrast the differing mental states of Dick and Perry, which is emphasized by the syntax, diction, and tone throughout the two passages. Capote uses opposing accounts of the same situation to add a deeper characterization of the two men, and to emphasize their differences psychologically. Throughout the book Capote attempts to show the true complexity of the killers, and how their backgrounds and psyches affected their actions. Although Capote is talking in the third person omniscient, he changes his style when describing the two characters.

Although Perry is the one who killed the family, Dick plans the crime with ease due to his evil characteristics and guilt free conscious, therefore vulnerability can easily be molded by manipulation.

The town had trouble understanding who would perform such a crime, and why they would do that to a family that represented everything that people respect. Everyone that surrounded the Clutters becomes a suspect including the unlikely Bobby Rupp. A thorough murder investigation takes place where the Police believed that robbery was the motive. As the townspeople continue their “Christian Duty” of cleaning up after the crime, Capote transitions to Perry’s journey the Mexico. Perry struggles with his role in the murder saying that “There’s got to be something wrong with somebody who’d do a thing like that” (p.131). He mentions that he still thinks of the killings, and is trying to distance himself from the crime. Dick’s thoughts, on the the other hand, don't change; he thinks of himself as a totally normal person. This chapter shows that Dick, Perry, and the town of Holcomb are all affected by the loss is the Holcomb family in different ways. Immediate effects of the murder were shown and the psychological trauma is experienced by several characters.

Truman Capote was a literary genius and had quite the way with words. His book In Cold Blood was a true work of literary art that he created with various rhetorical strategies and the truthful stories told by Garden City’s people and the two murderers of The Clutter Family ,Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote’s use of imagery, tone, and syntax when describing Perry the murderer of the Clutters is undeniably ingenious and brings out a more fiction feel to the story. In this essay I will provide you with a means to see Perry smith as I do and as I believe Truman Capote did.

The dynamic between Dick and Perry was always fragile and dominated by a need to determine who was more masculine, who was in charge. This is made easier by simply blaming the other one for any negative consequences. Dick and Perry weren't particularly fond of one another; they had differing hopes, long-term goals, and motives. A dynamic as fragile as this was easily shattered after their arrests, leading to quick confessions and a solution to the puzzling quadruple

The plot has two ‘twists’. The first occurs when the narrator’s three friendly travelling companions get off the train and he is left alone with the two delinquents.