Style Over Substance in Truman Capote's In Cold Blood Essay

While reading Truman Capote's novel,"In Cold Blood ", I spent more than one night lying awake in my bed, frightened by Capote's presentation of the facts surrounding the murder of an obscure Kansas farmer and three of his family members. Several times, I caught myself wondering why this book

Around the time of the novels publication in the late 1960s, a new literary genre had begun to surface: New Journalism. New Journalism sought to combine the elements of news writing and journalism with the elements of fiction writing. Described as being a form of literature that “engages and excites”, it sought to challenge its readers not only “emotionally” but also “intellectually”. Typically, New Journalism consists of four major characteristics such as

During the investigation the reader gets totally involved with Alvin Dewey, the main detective in the Clutter investigation. “When they find Smith and Hickock, Capote makes the reader wants to cheer aloud for the investigators.” (Manaly 1). The movie is not as involved, you do not get as caught up in the investigation while watching the events of their capture unfold, as you do while reading Capotes reenactment.

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

In Truman Capote’s captivating nonfiction, In Cold Blood, Capote ventures through the journey and lives of both the killed and the killers all while analyzing the point in which they crossed paths. From the days before the four Clutters were murdered to the last moments of the two killers’ lives, Capote takes into account each and every aspect that creates the ‘famous’ Clutter Case with an in depth look of just how and why these strange and unforeseeable events occurred. What was originally supposed to only be an article in a newspaper turned into an entire book with Capote analyzing both how and why a murder comes to be through the use of pathos, juxtaposition, and foreshadowing.

In Truman Capote’s Novel, In Cold Blood, Capote synthesises the writing techniques of a reporter and an author to tell the horrific and true story of the Clutter family murders. Capote uses comparison, selection of detail, and understatement to pose his argument that capital punishment is not a correct practice.

When we hear about a killing on the news, our natural instincts are to immediately antagonize the killers. More likely than not, we hate the killers, and hope they get a vengeful prison sentence. In Truman Capote’s true crime non-fiction book, In Cold Blood, we learn about the murders that took place in Holcomb. The story is about much more than the slaying of a respectful family, its focus is on the killers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. One of Capote’s main purposes in the book is to convey the multiple perspectives of a crime in order for the readers to view the killers as more than just the bad guys, and he achieves his purpose primarily through the use of pathos, anecdotes, and his chosen narrative.

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.

The best novels are the ones that connects with the reader and just toys with their emotions, as if they too were also in the story by using pathos, the most powerful appeal. This holds true with Truman Capote’s, In Cold Blood and his writing appealing to the reader’s emotions in the portrayal of Perry Edward Smith and Richard “Dick” Eugene Hickock, the two murders with an addition of Capote showing a great deal of favoritism to Perry over Dick. Throughout the novel, Capote uses tone and diction to allure the reader into the novel’s world and into every character’s life, just as if we knew their whole backstory.

Capote describes the lightning fast reaction time in which lead investigator Alvin Dewey receives word that likely suspects to the murder of the Clutter family have been found in Las Vegas. Dewey scrambles to send Herbert Nye, one of his subordinates, to the home of Dick Hickock’s parents in the late of night, Hickcock being one of the suspected

Mass murders portrayed and embodied the simplicity of being human. Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, devoted his life to give his audience every glimpse of the horrid murder of the Clutter family. Not to give a history lesson or a news story, but to present how two men of different backgrounds, ethnicities, and personalities joined together to kill an innocent family for riches. Never seen as monsters, but humans. Never seen as murders, but victims of deranged minds. Capote allows different points of view through each of his character’s eyes for his readers better understanding of the murder. The use of juxtaposition from Dick to Perry, the murders, summarized the compare and contrasting elements of these two characters. Truman

Truman Capote’s desire of incorporating his own creative writing with journalism and journalistic facts began long before the news of the Clutter murders painted the front pages of newspapers. “He said that he had been playing since 1954 with the idea of a book that would synthesize fictional techniques with journalism,” and “He wanted to change his creative life so as to live more in the world that other people live in,” (New York Times) a December 31, 1965 brief interview with Truman Capote, in which he explained how he wanted to incorporate his own fiction into the real world. Capote began training himself to record real life by remembering conversations without taking notes, while friends read to him and he tried to

He doesn't try to relate to the people he writes about and writes as unobjectively as possible. Capote delves into the past lives of the Clutter family and their murderers, so the readers can gather as much, or as little information as possible. Even the way the book is introduced, through eyewitness accounts, shows the reader that this is going to be factual, and entertaining writing. To keep his writing unique, Capote keeps his opinions out of the writing, and allows readers to form their own opinions on the people in the novel.

It is a fact that Truman Capote published his bestselling novel, In Cold Blood, in January 1966. It is a fact that Richard Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith confessed to, and were hanged for the murder of the Clutter family. However, it may not be true that Capote’s new form of novel, the nonfiction novel, is entirely factual as he claims in numerous interviews. Instead Capote uses a creative interpretation of events to manipulate the characters and to advance the narrative of In Cold Blood. Despite Capote’s desire to write a book that was completely factual, the addition of information intended to influence the audience, the characterization of Perry, and fabrication of certain events all lead to a book that is less than factual.

Despite all of these distressful childhood events, Capote’s life began to improve. He began to befriend prominent figures in the literary field and gain the support of some, such as Carson McCullers (“Truman Capote”). His first novel entitled Other Voices, Other Rooms, published in 1948, as well as a set of short stories, attributed to Capote’s early success. Capote further flourished as a writer, and soon enough, in 1966, he rose to the apex of his literary career with what began as a series of articles in the New Yorker and was finalized as a masterly publication— In Cold Blood (McMillan). The publication of the work, though, came only after the sentenced hangings of the two murderers of the Clutter family, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. For six extensive years, Capote and his childhood friend, Harper Lee, spent countless hours analyzing the case and delving deeper into it. Capote and Lee interviewed hundreds of Kansanians in an effort to elicit details and information to incorporate into the novel. Even Capote, himself, spent much time with the two murderers, accumulating further intelligence of the past lives of the murders and the criminality involved in the murders. Ultimately, through elaborately detailing the Clutter murder case from the beginning to end, Capote was brilliantly able to integrate aspects of the Southern Gothic genre into the novel.