In Cold Blood Analysis

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

Besides using anecdotes and stories from his childhood, Capote also used analogies to invoke a sense of sympathy for Perry, thus further using the means of pathos. In specific, a constant ‘comparison’ or analogy coupled with Perry is typically his ‘childish’ like structure. Short legs, small feet. This analogy is used constantly, including the hanging scene, where it is said Dewey had “open his eyes [and] saw the same childish feet, tilted, dangling”(Capote 341). This comparison is seen often when describing Perry and seems to give the man a childlike presence, making him come across as more innocent and understandable. This connection to Perry takes away from the ‘severity’ of his actions and instead reminds readers of his childhood and how it has affected him all through life. Using pathos to soften the personality of a killer and bring to life his struggles helped Capote to better exemplify the ‘makings’ of a murderer. When creating this book, Capote wanted to analyze how a murder came to be and thus how a murderer came to exist - in particular, Perry. The use of pathos in correlation to one of the main characters helped break down the hostile killer into a damaged, young, sensible young man who simply had a tough go at life. The device allowed for connection and personalization.

The most dominant strategy that Capote utilizes in order to achieve his purpose is pathos, as he plays on our emotions to get us to feel true sympathy for Perry Smith. This is strategy is overall the most effective one because it allows the viewers to perceive Perry differently. Capote mentions Perry’s abusive and neglectful childhood several times throughout the story’s course in order to make the readers feel empathic, and pitiful towards him. In one instance of the novel, Capote makes out Perry as a hero in a way. He sets up a picture of the killers at the beach, and he mentions how uncomfortable Perry is when he sees Dick talking to a young girl. He describes another instance like this when he says, “Hadn’t they almost got in a fight when quite recently he had prevented Dick from raping a terrified girl” (Capote 202). Perry is willing to stand up to his partner when he comes to situations like this. Readers can’t help but view Perry as a hero in his own way as he protects the young girls from Dick’s pedophilic mind. Capote plays on the assumption that everyone hates child predators, which is almost always true. In a way, Capote makes us feel admiration for Perry’s heroic effort in protecting the innocent, as he “prevented Dick” from doing something horrible. As Perry confesses his crime to Dewey and Duntz, he admits, “But I hoped we could do it without violence” (234). This is one of several moments where the readers get a sense of reluctance from Perry to commit the crime. Although Perry did eventually

Early on, Capote makes Smith seem a more sympathetic character, “Yes, and he had told Dick was true… Sierra Madre?” (Capote, 17). Capote makes Perry seem almost childlike as he describes Perry’s naive plan to search for gold in the Sierra Madre, which causes the reader to wrongly assume Smith is innocent, or at least more so than Hickock. While describing the murder of the Clutter family, Perry states, “And I thought… So I went back upstairs,” (277). Truman Capote deliberately includes Perry’s feeling that “It was like [he] wasn’t a part of it. More as though [he] was reading a story,” to show the level of dissociation Perry experiences. Even after Smith is found guilty of murder, the reader still feels some sympathy for Perry as Capote hints that Perry cannot be held accountable for his own actions. Just before he is hanged, Smith remarks, “It would be meaningless to apologize for what I did. Even inappropriate. But I do. I apologize,” (392-393). Capote includes Perry’s last words, which carry significant emotional weight, to evoke a final sympathetic reaction in the reader. Through Perry Smith, Capote creates pathos to demonstrate the harsh nature of capital punishment and cause the reader to wonder if it is the right

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

Capote uses Perry as a sympathetic character; asking the reader if Perry’s life had been easier growing up, would he have committed the murders? A point often overlooked is Capote’s detailed exploration into Perry’s childhood and life

Capote’s usage of imagery provides the pathos appeals that allows the readers to pity Perry for experiencing a devastating childhood. Perry describes his traumatic experiences such as losing the death of his family members- “Fern, the other daughter, jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel. Perry had ever since ‘tried to believe she slipped,’ for he’d loved Fern (Capote 110). In order to guarantee she will die, Fern jumps out of a window in San Francisco, the city of tall buildings, causing another death in Perry’s life after shortly losing his mother due to alcohol poisoning. Perry refuses to believe Fern committed suicide because he strongly believed “‘If she’d ever had any luck at all, with her looks and all, she could have got

Should Perry have a more intense death then dick or in Vis versa or should they have the same death penalty? The time is 1959 in Holcombe Kansas. The book is called In Cold Blood. The main problem is that these people with the names Dick Hickhock and Perry Smith, killed a family that goes by the name the clutters. The father and loving husband that never drank or smoked and neither did his employees because he would fire them if they got caught. His throat was cut and he was shot. The wife was bound gagged and shot, Nancy was bound and shot as well and so was her brother. All with a double barrel 12 gage shotgun. The murderers ran away to Mexico for a little while then made the mistake of singing their real manes to the forged checks. They

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.

Capote’s novel contains a wealth of dark and imagery, especially in regard to Perry. The author’s opinion of Perry is clear from the very beginning when he states that six shotgun blasts ended “six human lives.” (P1) Capote purposely fails to mention the occurrence of any sort of murder to begin with, and when he states the number of deaths, he includes the very killers with the killed, the guilty Dick Hickock and Perry Smith with the innocent Clutter family. Not only this, but Capote makes sure to surround Perry with a certain air of hopelessness and defeat, making him out to be a victim of the world around him. Throughout almost all of Perry’s life, he has always been the victim of his situation, whether it’s being mistreated by his parents, being beaten and abused by nuns, having to live without his siblings, “slaving away” for his father in Alaska, getting imprisoned for his own crimes, getting into a motorcycle accident, or being manipulated by Dick. Throughout the novel, Perry believes himself to be a product of his environment, always blaming others for his own behavior and choices. Even so, this intentional depiction of Perry becomes less noticeable when considering that almost everything else, even outside of Perry’s own perspective, seems to go wrong. Even the Clutter funeral was horribly depressing, when what could have been a

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.

“The desire to see into the mind of a serial killer can be a powerful attraction,” (Beck, The Grisly, All American Appeal of Serial Killers) is the primary premise behind Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel “In Cold Blood” as it depicts the heinous murder case of the four members of the charming and commendable Clutter family- Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. Capote simply does not jolt towards creating the narrative of the murders, but begins the novel by providing background information on the four Clutter members during their last hours through their perspectives. However, the personalities and presumed thoughts that characterize the lost ones is not consistently revealed since the book bounces back and forth from the Clutter members during their last hours and their murders, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, as they prepare to carry out the odious act of murder. However, the novel doesn’t provide the viewpoint of the murderers equally, but primarily that of Perry Smith’s and not only as they prepare to carry out the murders, but throughout a great portion of the novel. Once the novel makes the paths of Hickock and Smith meet up with the paths of the Clutters, it does not immediately detail the gruesome murders carried out by the heartless individuals, but instead the story is drawn along leaving the reader curious of what occurred within the Clutter household the night of November 15 by jumping to the aftermath of the prominent family’s

In Cold Blood brought about many social concerns and it was the cold and brutal facts of such a gruesome murder which was brought to the small town and the innocent family. Capote provided a detailed account and documentation of how the police force and legal system work in America. While the actual murders take up a small percentage of the 400 page novel, its main focus is on the hunt of Smith and Hickock, the trial, and ultimately the execution of the two murderers. Capote explored the frustrations of the police force, the frustration, and the cold facts which surrounded the murder. There is an element of suspense which Capote brought to In Cold Blood as the reader waits for the final execution and in the process learn about mitigating circumstances which made them the way they were.

Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” is widely considered today as the first “non-fiction novel.” Published in 1966 and the fruit of over 6 years of research, the novel is an account of the gruesome murder of the Clutter family by two fellow ex-convicts Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. The four members of the Clutter household, Kenyon, Nancy, Bonnie, and Herbert Clutter were all taken to a different location in the house and promptly executed, each by a brutal shot to the head with a 12-gauge shotgun. Famous writer Truman Capote, who at the time was experimenting with literary journalism in hopes of coming up with a “non-fiction novel”, quickly saw his opportunity and was on-site soon after the crime happened and followed the entire case through the capture, trial, and execution of the two convicts, a period that lasted over 6 years.