Loss of Innocence in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood Essay

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.

Children have a reputation for being innocent and naive. This is mainly because their experiences with the world are few and sheltered. As the children grow up they are exposed to more and more of the unfiltered world. Some parents do everything they can to keep their children from seeing that world. That is because as they see more of the world they become less innocent. Normally adults are the only ones who have truly lost their innocence. Unfortunately, there are exceptions, as there are to every rule, and they are not good. Children who have lost their innocence have had horrible things happen. Elie Wiesel writes in the novella Night how he lost his innocence. Elie has suffered a loss of innocence because he is desensitized, he has lost

Once he’s viewed as intellectual enough to analyze Perry and make assertions about his personality traits, Capote can successfully project and subtly impose his opinion of Perry. Later, Perry explains Willie-Jay is as “perceptive as a well-trained psychologist” (Capote 42-3). Because psychologists go through extensive schooling to be able to accurately assess individuals, Capote includes this quote to portray Willie-Jay as an authorial figure whose thoughts are accurate and should be widely accepted. The emphasis on ‘well-trained’ provides more weight in everything Willie-Jay says and cements his trustworthiness. Capote prefaces Willie-Jay with the concept that he is as trustworthy as a smart and ‘well-trained psychologist,’ so readers trust and accept Willie-Jay’s opinions of Perry, and, by extension, his personal opinion that readers should sympathize with him and readily accept the justifications for the murders.

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

The lost of innocence can totally change the way people view the world. A person who illustrates this can be found in J.D. Salinger’s novel, the Catcher in the Rye. The story happened during the 1950s, in a small town in Pennsylvania called Agerstown. A teenage boy named Holden, who witnesses the death of his older brother Allie when he was only 13 years old. Then consequently, he blames himself all his life for the death of Allie. As time went by he starts to search for a sense of innocence that was lost in the beginning of the novel. Throughout the course of the novel, the author conveys that Holden is continually stuck in between childhood and adulthood. The author uses Holden’s struggle to convey that in reality often times people who

We see two heartless, cold blooded killers that slain the innocent family of the Clutters with the intent to leave no witnesses and to rob them of their hard earned money but Capote deceives the reader's emotions throughout the entirety of the book to humanize straight killers and make them likable. We often see a murderer as a psychopath without any emotion but it is hard to label Smith and Hickock one because Capote brings the reader into their lives in a way that we would feel sorry and have pity for them. Capote makes the reader relate to Smith and Hickock by describing their families and showing insight into the killers’ dreams and aspirations so we could perceive them as people and forget that they ended the future of the Clutters. Perry was a lonely child growing up and had a drunkard mother that forced him into foster care where he was abused and bullied

[Anthony Horowitz once said, “Childhood, after all, is the first precious coin that poverty steals from a child.”] In the novel The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, the Walls children had a rough childhood, enduring many tough things like poverty. Rex and Rose Mary Walls wanted to teach their children resilience and self sufficiency. Despite their good intentions, they were very irresponsible and unstable parents. They put their children in danger in many ways which caused them to have a loss of innocence at a young age. The Walls children proved throughout the book that *having a rough childhood and losing innocence at a young age does not determine a person’s future.*

Boo Radley is the one example of innocence. For example, when Jem goes back to the radley house to get his pants , he does not tell scout what had happened until a while later saying, “ When i went back, they were folded across the fence .... like they were expectin’ me… They’d been sewed up. Not like a lady sewed ‘em , like somethin’ i’d try to do. All crooked.”(pg. 78) Him doing this displays to the children that he is not there to harm them but instead has a loving heart.

Innocence to many people can be defined as someone who has no guilt or shame and who is pure and uncorrupt. At times, this childhood like manner is loss for an abundance of reasons one can not control, whether it is because of a pain experienced off a struggle, or simply because one grows old and just experiences life with all its life changing moments. In my opinion, innocence is something that should be cherished as long as possible. Scars are sometimes left, imprinted deep into our skin, changing a person for good. In the book All Quiet in the Western Front, this could clearly be seen throughout the whole story about how these characters, Paul and his friends, go through many challenges that they did not expect,

In Truman Capote’s, In Cold Blood, the author seeks out to gather information on the murders of four members of the Herbert Clutter family in the small farming community of Holcomb. Although Kenyon Clutter is more of an introvert and likes to be alone while the killers enjoy cracking jokes and being together, they are comparable in some ways. Surprisingly Keylon has a lot of similarities with the killers, Dick and Perry, such as their interest in guns, having good hygiene, struggling with their physical disabilities, and girl unsightliness.

One character whose innocence is highly changed throughout the novel is Scout. In the beginning of the novel, we are introduced to a younger Scout who views the world as your innocent if you haven’t messed with or had contact with evil. Set off from this point, later on, Scout’s development as an adult and her ability to understand what and why something happens set aside the reason for it is thoroughly set upon her lifestyle. This is due to Scout’s gradual development toward understanding her father Atticus’s lessons, and culminating when, in the final chapters, she sees Boo Radley as a human being. Resulting in her newfound ability to view the world from his perspective ensures that she will not become surfeited as she loses her innocence.

Innocence is a trait guaranteed upon birth; however, the preservation of that innocence is not. From the moment that an individual is born, the environment surrounding them silently extinguishes small pieces of their intrinsic innocence. This happens predominantly in miniscule increments, in which seemingly insignificant pieces of one's innocence are gradually taken away; but, just as taking one dollar from a jar containing 365 dollars every day for a year would result in an empty jar, even the smallest abduction of innocence each day of one's life would eventually result in a barren state of innocence. This state of purity is illustrated in To Kill a Mockingbird, in which the reader follows several different characters, each with a varying balance between innocence and experience. Throughout the piece, multiple dynamic characters have a considerable shift in this balance.

“Truman Capote the author of the 1959 book In Cold Blood states that “writing has laws of perspective. “In stating this Capote is referring to the fact within writing there are all kinds of perspectives as it is a writers way of regarding something, in saying this he believes there are laws of these perspectives therefore an individual rule as part of that system. Capote could be referring to the fact that there are several perspectives within writing that are correct and they should be followed properly by fellow writers as they are the laws that should be held up like in painting and music how there are certain laws of perspective.”

From the very beginning of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the Clutters' fate is sealed at the hands of Dick and Perry, but the readers are still left in suspense and waiting in anticipation. With quick transitions and a recurring theme of something being the last for the Clutters, the beginning is a rousing murder scene without even a mention of the actual violent act. The sharp juxtaposition of describing the Clutters' everyday life compared to Dick and Perry preparing for the murder is striking. While the readers know the outcome of the violence, they are left wondering how and why until later in the book. Even then, like with any intriguing crime scene, people want to feel the thrill of the chase with the slight, underlining knowledge that

When I think of what “innocence” means, I think of someone or something not knowing any better, and in Shakespeare’s play The Tempest and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein we see that being portrayed. There are characters in both that just don’t know right from wrong, whether it is because of being sheltered or being new to living life, they both shows signs of innocence throughout their roles. Starting with Miranda from the play The Tempest, Miranda is sheltered from the world by her father, Prospero, and knows only what her father has taught her while being trapped on an island. She doesn’t have any contact with anyone other than her father and one of his slaves, Caliban. Throughout the play Miranda is very naïve and represents youth throughout the play, and both of those characteristics are good examples of someone who portrays a sign of “innocence”.