In Cold Blood, the American Dream and Loss of Innocence

The American Dream is prominent within the novel from the varying perceptions of the characters. The Clutter family was perceived to be living the American Dream along with their community. They had the luxury to live a comfortable lifestyle without reliance on anyone but themselves. Capote impeccably captures the contrasting stories of the idyllic family and the flawed murderers and suggests that the American Dream is delicate and requires the corporation of others, but despite the best efforts by some, it is unobtainable. “Always certain of what he wanted from the world, Mr. Clutter had in large measure obtained it,” (Capote 6). Mr. Clutter, a determined man who had worked for the life he envisioned, would have lived a prosperous life on his

There are many different dreams to be had: daydreams, dreams of the future, dreams of, well, practically anything imaginable. Perhaps one of the most infamous types of dreams that has been heard of is the American Dream. Defined as “the ideal that every American should have equal opportunity to achieve success and prosperity through hard work, determination, and initiative”, the American Dream is one of equality and desire and those who strive to achieve it are ambition-filled, driven individuals. It is hard to define what exactly is required to have achieved the American Dream because, in truth, everyone has a different idea of success and prosperity. Success means something different to every ear that hears the word. This exact truth about the American Dream is prominently seen in the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote; a book composed of the many characters, all who possess very different ideas of what the American Dream is.

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

Throughout In Cold Blood, Truman Capote writes on the events directly before, during, and the happenings after the brutal murdering of the Clutter family in the quaint town of Holcomb, Kansas. The actions Dick Hickock and Perry Smith attracted Capote and led him to ultimately report on the entire ordeal. Throughout Capote’s masterpiece, In Cold Blood, Hickock and Smith’s deranged and psychotic actions directly correlate to a deep psychosis they both suffered for multiple years.

In In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the author recreates the murders of the Clutter family. Capote starts this novel by describing the town of Holcomb which is very significant way to start, “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there’”(1). While reading this quote I imagined a very small town where everybody knows everything and there is no secrets. Small towns like this means that if you’re new in town people will notice. In knowing everybody because of the small town, you come to trust everybody and you will not feel the need to lock the doors. But after the murders of the Clutter family happened people did not know who to trust, “But afterward the townspeople, theretofore sufficiently unfearful of each other to seldom trouble to lock their doors...those somber explosions that stimulated fires of mistrust in the glare of which many old neighbors viewed each other strangely, and as strangers”(5). After the murders happened, the people of Holcomb saw each other as the enemy and started to not trust each other because they would have never expected this to happen. The Clutter family went on with their day as if it were normal, just like everybody else, they did not think any of this was ever going to happen in a small town like Holcomb. The Clutter family was always being described as a nice family and I found it very odd that Dick and Perry would choose that family to kill, “‘You were lovely,

Truman Capote’s book In Cold Blood, focuses on a small town in eastern Kansas where the slaughter of the Clutter family occurred. He uses many descriptors to give the town a bland look and uses dramatic irony throughout the whole first portion of the book. Through his imagery, diction, and rhetorical devices, he shows his feelings toward the town of Holcomb, Kansas. Although Capote portrays the town with many dull details, the viewpoint he gives the readers is an important part of the story; therefore, his purpose for writing the book wasn’t for the glam details, but to show readers that looking at someone’s life without knowing them can be far different than what you think.

America. A country that exudes so much hope into an individual: the hope of the American dream. From the founding fathers of America to today’s immigrants, America has always been a land for new beginnings and a chance at new opportunities. In the novel In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, Herb Clutter can be seen as an individual who has accomplished the American dream. On the other hand, the murderers of Mr. Clutter, Dick and Perry, can be seen as opposites of Mr. Clutter; the individuals who have failed to accomplish the American Dream. All three of these characters intertwine because of the American dream, which unfortunately leads to their deaths. Capote’s purpose is to expose the American dream and he uses the lives of Herb Clutter, Dick Hickock, and Perry Smith to accomplish that.

Walters idea of an “american dream” is to have everything. He wants his family to have the best of everything. Walter works hard everyday as a chauffeur for a rich white man. He has strong work ethics and works extremely hard. Mr. Younger wants to earn as much money as he can because he believes it will bring his family peacefulness and happiness. Mr. Younger’s main goal is to have money and he dreams up so many different ways to make money that he is sometimes overwhelms himself. He doesn’t want to think about reality and how things really are. He only concentrates on the future. Even though he knows in the back of

The major tenets of the quintessential American dream can be found in the ideology of every person “proud to be an American.” The America seen today is not the same as it was 50 years prior, so how can one expect the central “dream” to be the same? In fact, each person has developed an opinion on what the American dream may mean for him/her. For one, the dream may still be the white picket fence still life from so many years ago, but for another, it may be the accumulation of riches and fame. In Jon Krakauer’s Into the Wild, he shows us that Chris McCandless cared not for the quotidian rat-race he had grown so accustomed to, but more for the intricacies that the natural world had to offer. I believe that although Chris McCandless may not have made it out of Alaska alive, he still succeeded in discovering what he went there for, and in turn died fulfilling his own American dream.

When speaking of Mr. Clutter, “He was not as rich as the richest man in Holcomb - Mr. Taylor Jones…” (Capote 6) Capote emphasizes the economic status of Herb Clutter. By comparing him to the richest man in the county, the audience can assume he is neither rich nor poor and classify his family as middle-class citizens and most anyone else in his town. Through exemplifying the economic status of the Clutters, Capote is trying to convey to the audience the prevalence and rise of middle-class citizens during the time period.

The concept of the American dream has been related to everything from religious freedom to a nice home in the suburbs. It has inspired both deep satisfaction and disillusioned fury. The phrase elicits for most Americans a country where good things can happen. However, for many Americans, the dream is simply unattainable. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Winter Dreams,” Dexter Green, a hardworking young man born into the middle class, becomes wrapped up in his pursuit to obtain wealth and status in his life. These thoughts and ideas represent Dexter’s fixation on his “winter dreams,” or, the idea of what the American Dream means to him: gaining enough wealth to eventually move up in social class and become somebody, someday. As Dexter attempts

Every year, millions of immigrants come to America in search for a better life and to achieve the famous, yet mysterious, American Dream. Many famous pieces of literature focus on the struggle to achieve this dream, like showing the journey of a poor man named James Gatz to a famous, wealthy man named Jay Gatsby who seems to have everything in the world. Other pieces of literature show the unjust system of the American Dream, like with the character of Tom Joad, who works extremely hard but still seems to come up short of having a successful life. According to literary critic Blake Hobby, the American Dream can be achieved “by following a good work ethic, adhering to Christian notions of morality, and being properly ambitious, any individual can overcome the humblest of circumstances to achieve prosperity”. Hobby’s ideas of the achievement of the American Dream are unrealistic because of Tom Joad’s persistent attempt to achieve a better life and Gatsby’s rise to fortune.

The American Dream is a vision of economic opportunity available to all those who work for it, regardless of race or class. However, as seen in Arthur Miller’s “Death of a Salesman” and Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”, perverted conceptions of the American Dream convince certain characters that they are entitled to the fruits of miracles. Despite their best intentions for supporting their families, Walter Younger and Willy Loman encounter unsurpassable obstacles and are unable to fulfill their dreams. When all hope has been lost, family is the only thing that these characters have left. “Death of a Salesman” and “A Raisin in the Sun” portray family as asylums of safety amidst the hopeless ambitions of tragic heroes. Both Lena

In the midst of the nineteenth century, a period of time in which many individuals immigrated to the United States of America in complete search of the American Dream. As well as the theory and image the American Dream showcases, as American citizens we neglect the fact that freedom is a privilege whereas immigrants from other countries would simply cherish striving to become a part of American Society at all possible costs. Our Founding Fathers put into pursuit the ideal aspect that each person’s particular desire to purse happiness in any way was not just self-indulgence but through the factors of driven ambition and originality. In Arthur Miller’s “Death of A Salesman” Willy Loman fulfills the role of a man in his sixties who has attempted to accomplish the overall meaning of what the American Dream possess for over thirty years in which he practically failed endlessly to achieve that goal. The American Dream is well interpreted as the idea that many can strive to achieve financial stability through hard work, dedication, and commitment. In Miller’s play “Death of A Salesman” he begins to illustrate the many triumphs and flaws the American Dream has and the investment Willy Loman gave to embrace and encourage the overall importance of what the theory had to offer.

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