Truman Capote 's The Cold Blood

Throughout their childhood and later adult life Dick and Perry are exposed to experiences which contribute to their lawlessness in the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Recurring trends throughout each man’s lives such as their involvements in traumatic car accidents and higher education contribute to their unstable mental being, which eventually leads to the murders of the Clutter family. In Cold Blood argues that Dick and Perry’s backgrounds make their criminality inevitable.

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

This contrast can first be seen in the descriptions of Herbert Clutter, the father of the Clutter family, who was “cut a man’s-man figure. His shoulders were broad… his square-jawed confident face retained a healthy-hued youthfulness,” (Capote 6) and Dick Hickock, “his face, which seemed composed of mismatching parts… the lips were slightly aslant, the nose askew, and his eyes not only situated at uneven levels but of uneven size,” (Capote 31) and Perry Smith, “his chunky, dwarfish legs, broken in five places and pitifully scarred, still pained him so severely,” (Capote 31). Mr. Clutter, in perfect health condition, was considered to be traditionally “handsome”. Whereas Dick and Perry both are scarred by prior vehicle crashes with some part of their body maimed and permanently changed for the worse as a result. As well as littered with tattoos across their face and arms, they are, in a sense, the exact opposite of Mr. Clutter. Due to Mr. Clutter being described with positive traits the reader is more likely to trust, and therefore sympathize with him. In direct opposition to how Dick and Perry were described with mostly negative traits. The reader is less likely to trust them, but instead pin them as the “bad guys” without any knowledge of their past or their future actions. These completely opposing descriptions of the three men serve to set the foundation, or

In the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, one of the two killers, Perry Smith, is presented to be an emotional villain whose actions towards others reflects the way society has treated him. The traumatic and broken childhood that Perry endured did not only leave him untrusting of others but was a gateway to the dramatic and unpleasant life that Perry lived. Not only shown through his criminal actions, but every aspect of Perry’s life is negatively marked by his experiences, illustrating the trainwreck that his life turned out to be. Perry’s complicated feelings towards society is shown through his treatment of the Clutters during the home invasion.

Education offers endless doors of opportunity for the people who pursue it. Not only does knowledge breed confidence, but it sets society on a path and purpose towards success. Wandering without a purpose, people lose their goals and aspirations. Some individuals never find direction, developing a sense of insecurity and isolation. They begin to have thoughts which result as defense mechanisms to safeguard them from feeling alone and abnormal. When these reactions happen, the outcome of their actions become unpredictable, and potentially dangerous. Moreover these individuals will create their own world from their insecurities and act on them like reality. Often, these cases embody victims of mental disorders, overlooked by society. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote suggests criminals deserve careful analysis, an unpopular opinion; he refers to the lives of two characters, dreams shattered, suffering from the same fate. Through the investigation of a detective bureau and the author 's interpretation, the perpetrators symbolize a bigger picture. Although the details of the crime convey Perry as a cold-blooded murderer, Capote illustrates Perry as a victim of his childhood by emphasizing his insecurities and fears.

Although Capote’s writing may seem as though he is trying to relive the storyline of the murder, he is using language tools in order to build sympathy and humanize the murderers despite their gruesome crime while simultaneously making the reader feel sorrow for the Clutter’s.

The nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, takes place in the small and quiet town of Holcomb, Kansas. Capote takes the reader through the sequence of events that transpired before, during, and after the members of the Clutter family are unexpectedly murdered on November 15, 1959. He describes in detail the background of each of the main characters, which helps to clarify the motives of Richard Hickock and Perry Smith as they murder the Clutters. He illustrates how a positive or negative influence of an individual’s environment, lifestyle, and occasionally family can impact them into adulthood. These influences can determine the role that a person plays in society whether it is becoming a contributing member of society or

Many writers traditionally use their imagination to fabricate an interesting yet fictional story. Only their creativity and vision limit their writing. They can afford to neglect minor details because they do not base their stories on factual information. There existed a period when this was the only practiced style when writing a novel. However, Truman Capote pioneered the 'nonfiction novel', as he called it, when he undertook the writing of In Cold Blood. His book described the well-known murders of the Clutters, a model American family. Due to the fact that Capote was writing a factual account of the crime, he thought it necessary to make his novel correct in even the smallest details. This proved to be a very difficult project,

I chose this passage because of its significance to the plot. Once Officer Dewey was assigned to the Clutter case his life was consumed by evidence, witnesses, and long nights reading over potential breakthroughs. The murders injected fear into Dewey’s family and the entire Holcomb community. Therefor, he was constantly being asked for any breakthroughs or information he has obtained about the case and he began to feel overwhelmed. One night Dewey has a nightmare in which he is chasing Hickock and Smith. They stand beside the graves of Herb, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter and laugh and mock him. Dewey repeatedly shoots the men directly at their heart but they are unharmed. He wakes up in a cold sweat and learns that Dick Hickock has been

The novel “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote is truly a very intriguing piece of literature. Based on a true story, the events of the novel follow the homicide of a loving family who are brutally murdered in a single night and tensions within the community rise as the real culprits are being searched for. Now the plot of the story isn’t what makes this an extraordinary piece, it’s the tone and mood that Capote uses to describe certain events, characters, and even settings.When it was revealed in the story that the reason for

Holcomb, Kansas, appears to display rickety, ramshackled buildings lining a dusty, arid street to consist of the downtown area, according to Truman Capote’s depiction of the town in his novel, In Cold Blood. Nothing stops in Holcomb, with the exception of rare freight trains. Capote, while describing the town as boring, old, and dry, focuses his positive attributes towards the center of education in the town. Holcomb’s school stands out like a needle in a haystack to the rest of Holcomb, with its polished walls and modernized interior. Capote utilizes imagery and diction to accurately illustrate to his readers the layout of Holcomb and the people who reside there.

Widely considered to be one of the most powerful and engaging pieces in the history of modern American literature, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood tells the true story of the gruesome murder of the Clutter family during the late 1950s. The novel not only recalls the factual events of the case by incorporating real dialogue and documents, but also focuses on the lives of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, the two men who committed the crime. As the novel progresses, Capote concentrates on the dynamics of the relationship between the killers, contrasting the differences between highly intelligent but ill-tempered Dick, and Perry, who was abused and abandoned as a child. Their divergence in actions and manners are exemplified by Capote’s writing styles

“It is no shame to have a dirty face - the shame comes when you keep it dirty.” (Capote, 162). On November 15, 1959 Herb, Bonnie, Kenyon, and Nancy Clutter were brutally murdered in their home in Holcomb, Kansas. After hearing about these casualties, Author Truman Capote took a bold step and invested six years, from 1960 to 1966, to research not only the response of the community but the perspective of the killers as well. Once published, Capote’s objective and shocking realism had become a beacon of an entirely new genre. Richard Brooks’ 1967 film adaptation of Capote’s work is an exceptional method of storytelling, but it’s limited duration resulted in many

Capote takes his inspiration for In Cold Blood from first hand accounts of a committed crime in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas. The progression of the story is exhibited as it really occurred. Capote conducted extensive research out of general curiosity as well as the need for entertainment, and thus the research was used to relay the story of the infamous Clutter case. Part four, The Corner, gives in depth insight into several characters, most notably the murderer Perry. Capote dissects Perry’s psyche and describes his final thoughts and actions in incredible detail. In order to accurately portray this sensitive subject, Capote interviewed, studied, and even befriended Perry before his sentence to death. Due to his wealth of firsthand knowledge, no one was more qualified to explore the complex and psychotic mind of Perry Edward Smith than Truman Capote.

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood was revolutionary on several accounts, one being that it created an entirely new genre that combined nonfiction with literature. Another groundbreaking aspect of the novel was how effectively Capote was able to establish his opinion on whether nature or nature had the greatest effect on the fate of an individual. In artful descriptions of the personalities and backgrounds of the characters Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, Capote expertly discloses his opinion that both nature and nurture can create criminals. Capote presents Dick as a young man with an average childhood and loving parents; Perry, on the other hand, emerged from a childhood of trauma, a life of abuse, and no authority figure to show him clear morals.