Category: In Cold Blood

Thesis

Morals in a laymans language are good ethics with which people adhere to either publicly or privately. Morals do show a discrepancy from one culture to another; however, they do echo good virtues overall. Both Faerie Queene Book II and In Cold Blood are good representations of morality for good virtues as well as the total opposite of it, immorality for sin.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote

In cold blood is a book that looks at an atrocious murder of a rich farmer, Herbert Clutter along with his wife and two children in Holcomb Kansas in 1959. After the murders, the killers got arrested, tried and eventually executed. Capote interrogated local residents as well as the investigators who handled the case for all the relevant information that led to the creation of In cold blood.

In cold blood, Mr. Clutters public eminence is one example that represents religious, social as well as financial morality. The fact that he was appointed to be in charge of the eight-hundred-thousand dollar Methodist church building committee is one hell of a responsibility that calls for good morals to be able to handle it effectively.

To be trusted with large sums of money for a church project best represents religious as well as financial morality. Apart from being in charge of the building committee for the church, Mr. Clutter was also once a member of the Federal Farm Credit Board. Such positions are only reserved for people with good social, religious, legal as well as financial morals in the community. The other aspect of morality is the close-knit family of Mr. Clutter and the great children that are upright in character and adored by the locals. The thanksgiving dinner for the family reunion is also one case in point that represents religious as well as social morals for the Clutter family (Capote, p. 5).

Mr. Clutters interaction with his servants does represent good social morality especially in todays world where masters simply give orders and expect results. But on his part, Mr. Clutter, much as he is the employer, he is a team player who works alongside his employees. When it concerned the well-being of his children, Mr. Clutter was strict but reasonable. A case in point is when his daughter Nancy came back late from a late-night show, Mr. Clutter was more concerned about the boy who dropped her home instead of her lateness. He cautioned her daughter about her boyfriend who was catholic while the Clutters were Methodists which according to him was a mere waste of time since the two will never get married due to their religious differences. This represents social as well as sexual morality (Capote).

With a sick wife and a housekeeper coming in on weekdays only, Mr. Clutter learns how to cook despite having enough money to hire household help. Along with his young daughter they handled the cooking quite effectively. Apart from cooking regular meals in his house, Mr. Clutter was quite good at baking bread. As a matter of fact, he was one of the best bread bakers in his community. Despite being an excellent cook, Mr. Clutter ate very little and never smoked nor took spirits. Mr. Clutters circle of friends as members of the First Methodist church of garden city also avoided both stimulants as well as spirits (Capote).

Mr. Clutter also emphasized the same to all his family members as well as the rest of the laborers that worked on his farm. As a matter of fact, Mr. Clutter always made it a point to find out if any of the job applicants take spirits or stimulants. This was further emphasized on the work contract whereby all his employees signed that should they find in possession or smelling of alcohol, their contracts are instantly terminated. All this represents good family values and therefore represents good religious morality (Capote, p. 6).

Mr. Clutter as an employer was renowned for paying his employees well, giving frequent bonuses to his employees, commitment to charity work as well as level-headedness. This is a true measure of not only financial, social, legal, but also religious morality. Mr. Clutters compassion and readiness to give his only resident employee a morning off to take his sick child to the hospital is just remarkable. More so, he was even ready to offer any other type of assistance if the employee needed it. This represents a very high social as well as religious morality (Capote).

Mr. Clutter always loved his River Valley farm and everything that was on it. Once his wife jokingly said my husband cares more for those trees than he does for his children, this was how Mr. Clutter loved his farm. Once a small aircraft crashed into his peach trees, Mr. Clutter filed a lawsuit even before the pilot could get out of the aircraft. This represents legal morality as Mr. Clutter loved and cherished everything he owned.

When Mr. Clutter was busy patrolling his expansive farm, he came across hunters from Oklahoma who had not paid Mr. Clutter for them to hunt, however when they offered to pay for hunting rights, Mr. Clutter let them hunt without paying and headed home. This represents financial morality for the landowner who is not greedy to jump at every opportunity to make money (Capote, p. 56).

In a tinny town of Holcomb, Kansas on November 15, 1959, without a motive, four members of the Clutter family were brutally murdered by a shotgun held a few inches from their faces. The killers left no clue as there was no perceptible motive. However, the murders were reconstructed and the investigation led to the apprehension, trial and execution of the killers (Capote, p. 419).

Faerie Queene Book II by Edmund Spenser

From a distance, The Bower of Bliss and Garden of Adonis may appear morally similar due to their geographical form; however, the two gardens depict very different classes of human life. Garden of Adonis is a representation of good morals while The Bower of Bliss depicts sexual immorality, sin.

To stimulate wasteful useless lust by use of art is what is condemned in The Bower of Bliss, but there is great admiration for the garden. Just as there is deformity when one goes into The Bower of Bliss, the vine bending under the weight of golden grapes image indicates natures deformity by deception. By trying to overdo the most interesting features of the golden ivy, it ends up with excess goodness to a morally unsound point. The replication of sensations is as good as pornographic in nature. This represents sexual morality (Spenser, p. 42).

On the other hand, The Garden of Adonis is a contrasting one with natural goodness that is not exaggerated unlike the Bower of bliss. The Garden of Adonis does not have any of the artifices, but only natural Art. The Garden of Adonis represents sexual as well as religious morality due to its reality that is not over-emphasized as in the Bower of Bliss. In Garden of Adonis, the gates are guarded by the real Genus but not a phony one as in the case of the Bower of Bliss (Spenser).

The Garden of Adonis is one that witnesses the cycle of regeneration as only grownups enter through its gate and small kids leave the garden, unlike the unproductive lust experienced in the garden of Bower of Bliss. It may appear as if old age to babyhood is recycled, or maybe it could be just their souls are the ones that get recycled. This is the best example that represents religious morality when people entering the Garden of Adonis with sins they have carried on their shoulders for a long time are offloaded once they are in the Garden of Adonis and come out forgiven and clean like young babies (Spenser, p. 48).

The Garden of Adonis is a symbol of the plutonic life principle where bodily decay during their lifetime is again restored after they enter this garden. This also indicates that the Garden of Adonis is fruitful and a storehouse of some sort for the different forms of life. This indicates that the Garden of Adonis is a place where religious as well as sexual morality is upheld. All the people who visit the Garden of Adonis are people who share and enjoy normal and realistic love which is not given in excess to a point of sickness (Spenser, p. 80).

The love experienced in the Bower of Bliss garden along with its excessive and unproductive pleasures is a total contrast to the unwavering love and happy state only experienced in the Garden of Adonis. Even the name Bliss implies extreme and transitory sensation. The people who visit it are only interested in wasteful and lewd sex, just for the sake of it as nothing productive or fruitful comes out of it as it lacks real love. The people who visit the Bower of Bliss have no interest in procreation as in the case of those people who visit the Garden of Adonis. Because of the sexual immorality in the garden of Bower of Bliss, the spirit, as well as the will-power of a knight, is sapped leaving him with no interest to pursue his true calling in life (Spenser, p.73).

Under some kind of spell, with her misguided and lustful mind, the queen of the garden is an enchantress with the ability to twist men into pigs. Only men with experience as well as sound knowledge are able to resist this phony lure of the enchantress. These are men who are role models in society who uphold very high sexual morality in society. The sight of naked Damzelles bathing, gets Guyon very aroused and gets him enchanted almost immediately. Guyon is in danger but luckily the Palmer pulls him away despite Guyons education into temperance. Despite the Bower of Bliss garden being ruined by artifice, not all of its pleasures were tainted, in verse 75, the song lovely lay only advocates taking pleasure in life while it lasts (Spenser, p.80).

Conclusion

In life, there are people with different virtues. There are those who are role models for society such as the Clutter family and the garden of Adonis that best represent morality, good virtues. While on the other hand, there are those who are a menace to society with their evil deeds such as the quadruple killers and the Bower of Bliss that represent immorality, evil deeds.

Works Cited

1. Capote, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Transaction Publishers, 2006.
2. Spenser, Edmund. The Faerie Queene. New York: Penguin Classics, 1978.

Antagonist and Protagonist

To start off, the protagonist of “In Cold Blood” would have to be the detective “Al Dewey”. Al was a cop that came to the scene. He wanted to find the killer of the family because the Clutters were a popular family that really did not have any problems with anyone. It was almost like Al was best friends with the Clutters because he was trying so hard to find the person that killed them. Dick was a main character who was one of the murders of the family, i chose him as the antagonist because no one thought it would have been him because everyone thought he was a good guy. Dick on the other hand is not believable, he made us think it was someone else when it was him along.

Plot Summary

“In Cold Blood” is a story about a popular family getting murdered and everyone is shocked, there is a detective who trys for so long to figure out who the killer is. The book started off being pretty slow until all of a sudden there was a shooting at the Clutters house. A girl who normally got picked up by the Clutters went over and found them dead. It was a surprise to everyone because the Clutters were very nice people who didnt cause any drama. The two murderers who were Dick and Perry actually leave and go out of town so they wouldnt get caught. Once they leave its almost like everyone gives up on the trial but everyone is still scared because they know the killer is still out there somewhere. But eventually people put out a look for Dick and Perry and luckily enough a cop saw them and took them in. Dick decided it would be best to just confess. They then get sent to jail for life, the town is calm and peaceful now.

External and Internal conflict

The external conflict happens between Al who is the detective and Dick who is the killer of the Clutter family. For so long Al wanted to find the killer of the family but he never could because it was hiding right in front of him the whole time, Dick being the antagonist means he was clearly the problem and he was. He made it hard on the whole town because everyone was so scared to go to sleep at night and to just go outside. So Dick made everything worse by going out and hiding from Al and this is why Dick is the problem. The internal conflict in this story has to go back to the protagonist, Al. Al was ready to find the killer and everyone believed in him, he just needed more hints to figure it out. He spent just about all of his time working on this case, he just knew it would mean a lot to the town if he found the killer. Climax is the turning point of the story so the turning point of “In Cold Blood” would have to be when Dick and Perry confessed to killing this, this then sent them both to jail and changed the rest of the story. The conflict that was resolved is that Al finally knew who the killer was and so did everyone else, so now people could go back to being happy and living their lives again.

Foreshadowing and Irony

One of the foreshadowing evnts that happened in my story was about a man who was walking in the clutters house and a decective spoted him so he wnet up and asked him why he was walking around in there, but the man had just said he was curious about what the house looked like after they had died. Al, who was the detective went over to the guys car and found a shotgun and a knife. The weird part about this was that the Clutters died by a shotgun and had gotten stabbed. After that it made me instantly think that he was the killer because he had both weapons and he was inside the house with no one else. Another example of foreshawdoing would be when Nancys boyfriend left her house he said “it almost felt like someone was waiting for me to leave”. At the end of the book i thought about it and realized the person waiting for him to leave was the killer of the Clutters. An example of irony would be Mr Clutter talking about putting money in the bank for his life insurance, this just kinda makes it seem weird that he got murdered a day after putting a ton of money in the bank.

Theme

The theme of this book would have to be something along the lines of “working hard enough for something you want will pay off in the future”. The meaning of the quote means that dont give up so easily, if you really wanna know something or really want to complete something then try your hardest and one day you will succseed. This is related to Al who was the detective of the case, Al was so determinded to figure out who the killer was. Even after people telling him he wouldnt be able to find him and people telling him to stop worrying about it, he still continued to find clues and kept trying and ended up finding the killers of the family.

Film and writing techniques play a significant role in how to scene or event is being perceived by the audience. Likewise, in the film, Capote (2005) by Bennett Miller, and the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, literary and directory techniques used are vital to the composition and understanding of the story’s tone and flow. Both depict the same story of the gruesome murders of the Clutter family and its criminals. Although the movie and the book are by different artists, they use similar techniques regarding the composition of the scenes and their tone while conveying the story’s message.

In his book, Capote uses a dual sequential narrative. The book is arranged as a series of small scenes or stories, punctuated by breaks in the narrative similar to cuts, which combine to form together several plotlines. Capote narrates the story back and forth in loosely chronological order through two narratives: that of the killers and the killed. For example, at the start of the book, while telling the story of Dick and Perry and the Chevrolet, he immediately continues with Nancy and Jolene Katz: “Dick, racing the engine, listening to the consistent hum, was satisfied that a thorough job had been done. Nancy and her protégée, Jolene Katz, were also satisfied with their morning’s work” (Capote 24). Capote’s constantly differing perspectives are similar to “cuts” in movies. The film includes sharp cuts, changing camera angles, and differing perspectives within itself too engaging the audience and resulting in vastly different and unique emotions conveyed to the audience. Additionally, in the book, Capote acts as the “camera”: he documents the events of the murder case from an omniscient point of view, without disclosing his own involvement in the story. Comparably, in the film, the omnipresent point-of-view of the camera lets the audience become engaged in the events onscreen, enabling the audience members to identify with the characters. It can be inferred from Capote’s use of this technique that by utilizing film techniques, Capote manipulates the structures necessary to secure their sympathy for the killers and project both sides of the story to the audience correctly.

Furthermore, the book and the movie are similar in terms of how they convey the tone to the audience. Two of the prevalent tones in the story are melancholy and fatalism. In the story, the gruesome murders, description of the murderers, and the depressing lives of the characters display Capote’s dark side as he retells the events leading up to and of the Clutter family murders. Capote conveys this part of himself by using a detached perspective, extensive and detailed imagery, and specific word choices. He uses such literary devices to make the audience feel the same way he does about the Clutter murders and its criminals. Similarly, to convey the same tones, the movie uses a dark setting and generally confined spaces. Additionally, a darker color scheme is used throughout the movie, similar to Capote’s imagery, mainly because the darker color schemes, including grey and black tones, represent mourning, and so set a melancholic and despondent tone.

To sum up, both the movie and the book utilize similar techniques while conveying the tone to the audience, composing the elements of events, and using character-specific perspectives.

Every single day a child is born, the same way as all politicians and bishops. Two people got together to create one, when a child is born, they are born with an empty brain untouched by the outside world just empty awaiting its chance to learn and create a personality. As the years go on the time you spent as a child fades away and the moments one lives through shapes and molds them to who they are in the present. People face challenges each day some events they cannot be in control of while other things one faces are completely one’s fault. Those events change people and that brain that was once pure and empty now has opinions and judgements that alter ones view on the world. After facing those challenges, most become strong and wise while the ones who do not learn from the events may become alone and afraid while becoming depressed. This is how a murderer is born, same as all human but not able to cope with the challenge’s life throws at them. In the true crime novel In Cold Blood the author Truman Capote shows how the progress of becoming a murderer happens by depicting what had happened in the lives of the two murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith leading up to the brutal massacre of the Herbert Clutter family.

Firstly, Perry Smith just one of the two murderers in the highly well-known case. Smith is a person in the novel who the reader tends to feel sympathy for because of how in-depth Capote writes into Perry’s backstory. After the two men were arrested and brought to jail, the doctor, Dr. Jones did a mental health exam on Perry while he has behind bars and if the doctor could of testified in front of the court and under oath he could of said to the court that Smith had “…a paranoid schizophrenic reaction” (Capote, 298). Doctor Jones explains many of the most important events in Smiths life while they directly connect to why he has mental health issues. Perry Smith was born into a very unhappy and rough family, for that means when he grew into his childhood years which proved to be difficult for Perry to manage. From the day he was born his mother and father were divorced which was frowned upon in the early twentieth century, that lead his mother to become an abusive alcoholic leading her to give her children away to the orphanage where Smith was beat and battled each day, Smith quotes “She would fill a tub with iced-cold water, put me in it, and hold me under till I was blue” (Capote 119). Few years later Perry’s father did not allow him to go to school. These events changed his life majorly causing his to become an alcoholic like his mother and he succumbed to the darkness of depression. As a result of depression Smith started shoving people away not willing to trust anyone so he was unable to make anymore relationships with anyone because he would push them away. When he was able to maintain a friendly relationship with some it would most likely end up in ruins because he was quick tempered and frequently snapped on people.

Perry had a difficult time growing up because no one taught him the rights and wrongs of society and the moral values that follow that. Perry knew his actions could be punishable and he knew that he was in the wrong for example, the time Perry decided to follow along with the robbery but all he cared about was the profit he would make it he followed through. The moment came during the murder though that stands out, Perry had Herbert Clutter in his grasp centimeters away from him with a knife in his hand. Smith was not clearly thinking as he slid the razor-sharp blade across the neck of Mr. Clutter or when he brutally shot Mr. Clutter and the young Clutter boy Kenyon. Perry didn’t want to kill Herbert as he was a respectable man during their short time together. After the murder Perry was very upset as he regretted his actions later stating, “They never meant to hurt me. Like other people, like other people all my life. Maybe its just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it” (Capote 302). All the people who had ever been a negative person in the view in Perry’s life are the people who really did the murdering because the people who made Smith suffer through his life is the reason he slide the knife and fired the bullets into the fallen clutters. After the murders Smiths life really fell into despair and he was never the same man after he massacred an innocent family just living their life.

Dick the second and more vicious of the two men is the other side of the crime. Dick was born not into a cruel family like Perry Smith but into a kind warmhearted family. Dicks parents were nice and devoted Catholics. Dick was excellent in school receiving high marks while also maintaining an athletic stardom at school. On the downfall of this perfect lifestyle the Hickock family was extremely poor so with that means they were unable to send Dick to college. Dick was offered many sports scholarships, but he had to support his family. This sent the young man into grave unhappiness and therefore made him despise anyone who have the life he could have had if he had the opportunity to do so. When Dick was arrested after the murder the same Dr. Jones that did the psychiatric exam on Perry did one on Dick too and claimed that dick suffered from a character disorder which was very severe and the way he acted resulted in further damage. Dick chose to do wrong because he was a very unhappy man who did not think it would get worse than it is. He treated woman with the utmost disrespect and even raped young girls. He felt sexually attracted to young woman because he was a womanizer and he felt as though the easiest was to get what he wants which is sex is to get it out of the weak and venerable young girls. Even during the murder of the family Dick wanted to rape the daughter of Herbert Clutter before murdering her.

Overall, Truman Capote made the reader feel sympathetic for the two men and others by explaining that they were not born evil they were slowly groomed into the bestiality. Truman Capote in 1959 when the real murders happened travelled to Holcomb in Kansas where the Clutter family lived. Capote got to see their house and interview their friends and family and get a firsthand view of what had happened. He brought along with him his lifelong friend Harper Lee author of To Kill a Mockingbird to gather more information with him incase he missed anything important that he could write into the novel. Truman Capote really wanted the reader to feel truly immersed into this novel and that’s why he adds all this amazing detail. Capote wanted the reader to see how he really dug deep into the lives of these two infamous men and how one inconvenience could change someone forever. The message is that one never knows what background someone had but one could be kind and it could change someone’s life or save one.

In Cold Blood takes place in a small town in Holcomb, Kansas during the year 1959. Truman Capote, the author, writes about a seemingly random cold blooded murdering, which during this time period, was not a very common subject to write about. The book starts by describing four members of the Clutter family’s last day of living. It then introduces Perry Smith and Dick Hickock as the two murderers. The news of the murderings spread like wildfire throughout Holcomb. The townspeople went into a panic because they knew the Clutters as a very secure and respectable family in the community, so when the family got murdered, the people fell into paranoia and mistrust. The book then goes into a series of places the killers travel some time after the murdering. Eventually, a police officer in Las Vegas spotted their license plate and took them in for questioning. After many interrogations, Dick eventually broke, and Perry gave a full confession. The mysteries of the murder became clear and what remains at the end of the book is their awaiting execution. The book concludes with Dick’s and Perry’s testimonies and their passing of time on Death Row.

Truman Capote strives to discover a new genre of New Journalism, a style developed in the 1960s that emphasizes truths over facts. He aims to convince his audience that even though humans are naturally kind, traumatic experiences can make people capable of doing extremely horrific activities such as murder.

Chapter four of Jay Heinrichs’s Thank You for Arguing explains that pathos is arguing by emotion. It is when the author sympathizes with the audience and pulls at their emotions. Once the author has a tight grip on the audience’s feelings, they then change the mood to suit their goal. Truman Capote incorporates this strategy through his one of his most complex characters, Perry Smith. Capote writes many reminiscences of Perry’s childhood, ranging from letters from his father to reports from his sister. Perry was a good kid, until the days of his father beating his mother, who turned to drinking. He then ended up in a series of orphanages, where he was constantly beaten and tortured by the overseers. Capote chooses to include Perry’s abusive background to show his audience the cognitive side of his upbringing. By exploiting Perry’s troubled background, Capote makes the audience sympathize with Perry, grasping their emotions to highlight the fact that Perry had an extremely traumatizing childhood and showing the extremities of his abusers and how horribly they will treat a child. To add to the horrendous childhood, Capote added Perry’s accident that resulted in his legs being crippled and in constant pain. Continually pulling at the audience’s sympathy, Capote uses the emotional strategy to build his foundation that shocking incidents can cause distress within a human, making them more irrational towards decision making. Capote then elaborates on Perry’s desire to have an education when he writes quotes Perry, “‘’You think I like myself? Oh, the man I could have been! But that bastard never gave me a chance. He wouldn’t let me go to school. O.K. O.K. I was a bad kid. But the time came I begged to go to school. I happen to have a brilliant mind. In case you don’t know. A brilliant mind and talent plus. But no education, because he didn’t want me to learn anything, only how to tote and carry for him. Dumb. Ignorant. That’s the way he wanted me to be’“ (Capote 185). When Capote present the inner thoughts of Perry and his wish to continue an education, he creates a sense of pity in the audience, making them see how Perry wanted to have an education to become a better self, but never got the opportunity because of his abusive father.

From chapter nine of Thank You for Arguing, Heinrichs describes storytelling as a well-told narrative that gives the audience a virtual experience. By making the story more virtual and realistic, it makes the audience feel more involved in the story, thus allowing their mood be more directly changed. Capote wants to present the narrative of In Cold Blood to his audience in a realistic yet immersive style to engage his readers. He wants his viewers to see his characters as comprehensible while also giving a thorough view of the complexity of human minds rather than writing about one-dimensional emotionless, triggerhappy robots. By providing his audience the front row seat of a murderer’s mind, he slowly changes the mood and interpretation of the whole Clutter case situation. Capote includes many accounts of what the murders thought and said throughout the book, for example, when Perry thinks “I didn’t want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat” (Capote 244). By recounting the story in Perry’s inner thoughts, the audience can see how Perry felt a sense of humanity before he succumbed to his desire of killing the Clutters. This builds upon Capote’s argument that traumatic experiences can influence a person to do heinous activities by having his audience understand the characters through a wider perspective.

In chapter eleven of Thank You for Arguing, Heinrich introduces the concept the commonplace as a viewpoint that an audience holds in common. Quoted from Thank You for Arguing, “The rhetorical commonplace is a short-form expression of common sense or public opinion. It is any cliche, belief, or value that can serve as the audience’s boiled-down public opinion” (Heinrich 119). Truman Capote writes In Cold Blood as a means of creating a new genre of meticulous realism. By utilizing the commonplace, Capote explores the pros and cons of counter culture ideas of the 1960s. Deemed unconventional throughout the 1960s, New Journalism received many critics from contemporary journalists that worried about writings were going to be more subjective towards favoritism and personalized reports. Capote realized the public’s commonplace towards this genre, so he sought to discover a new way of writing in a New Journalistic style. The commonplace believed that authors would be tempted to stray from including specific facts and events in order to create a more dramatic story. In order to avoid this ordeal, Capote writes as an omniscient narrator that alternates between the perspectives of the murderers, the Clutter family, the town, and the investigators. By including all perspectives from a non-personalized standpoint, Capote continually keeps the readers aware of what is happening at all times while also emphasizing important events. To steer clear of inaccuracy, Capote spent six years intensively studying and recovering information in order to advocate to his audience that New Journalism can push the boundaries of non-fictional writings. He pushes himself beyond his limits for years in order to acquire as much information as he can to strengthen his credibility and emphasize truths and facts while utilizing the exciting and intricate structure of a novel.

When Capote pulls at his audience’s emotions throughout the book, he makes them wonder how they could feel sympathy for this man. By making his audience sympathize with Perry, Capote effectively grasps at their emotions, successfully making them concede to his point that a traumatic past create many contradictions and conflicts within a person, which shows how one’s decision making can be influenced by their earlier influences of faulty morals. Also, by unfolding the Clutter Case with the storytelling strategy, Capote effectively gives his audience a meaningful experience that makes them connect to the murderers in the sense that they could feel the toll that the murder case has taken on everyone. Lastly, Capote’s use of the commonplace allows him to effectively advocate the New Journalism movement. He successfully persuades his audience of the 1960s and ‘70s that nonfiction writing can be combined with aspects of fictional storytelling by writing in an all-inclusive style.

The novel In Cold Blood, written by Truman Capote introduced a journalistic style of creative writing using antirealism. This experimental approach to factual reporting required years of gathering research through first hand interviews, analyzing court records, and personal evaluation. The novel was intended to convey the case of the Clutter family, by honing in on the murderer’s mental states and thought processes, and highlighting the themes of nurture vs. nature and criminality, while staying true to the events that took place. Although Capote was adamant in claiming that he didn’t directly fabricate or invent the facts in the novel in an interview done with George Plimpton, his perspective on the outcomes and dynamic of the case were made obvious through the use of characterization, emotional appeals, and selective detail.

It wasn’t until after Capote narrated the Clutter murder scene, and began to narrate the convict’s actions and thoughts that his rhetoric became more evident. Dick’s essence was captured by his pedophilia, apathy towards killing, and cowardice tendencies. Capote portrayed Dick in a negative light based on his actions. When offering Perry’s point of view of Dick, it was said that he would spend any money he received “right away on vodka and women” (Capote 86). The insight given by Perry makes Dick seem irresponsible, as opposed to insane. Spending one’s money on partying directly correlates with immorality, which doesn’t necessarily equate to a mental disorder, but rather a character flaw. Dick was also made out to be a coward, who used Perry’s low self esteem to execute his grand murder plan. In the beginning of the novel, Dick tells Perry that he was going to “blast hair all over them walls”, referring to how they were going to kill the Clutters (Capote 47). However, towards the end of the book, Capote unfolds Dick’s true objective when discussing how he was “convinced that Perry was a rarity, “a natural killer”, which alludes to the idea that Dick was leading Perry on, knowing that he will commit the crime (Capote 96). The progression of Dick’s statements helped the reader think on the same terms as Capote did, which was that Dick was the one to be blamed, since he was shown to have had the mind of a criminal. In contrast to this, Perry was blatantly characterized as a victim, since Capote offered more quotes from him that would sway the reader into sympathizing with his character. For example, after committing such a vile crime, Perry remarked how it, “was painful to imagine that one might be not just right,” and, “if whatever was wrong was not your own fault but maybe a thing you were born with” (Capote 175). From this, the reader perceives Perry as a person who emotionally wounded and not in control of his own actions. Dick, on the other hand, as Capote stated in the interview “had a very natural criminal instinct towards everything” (Plimpton). This statement Capote made proves that he believed Dick to be a criminal at heart, which was translated into how he illustrated Dick’s nature.

The recurring emotional appeals in the novel revolve around the stark differences between Perry and Dick’s upbringing as well as Perry’s childlike personality. Capote did not offer a complete analysis of Dicks upbringing, nor did he mention any adversities in Dick’s life, other than the fact that he had served time in prison. Instead, Dick was portrayed as an ordinary boy with a loving family, who, as his mother put it, was “always the star player” in basketball, graduated from highschool, and planned to “study to be an engineer” in college (Capote 251). Dick’s family’s description exuded normalcy, implying that any flaws that Dick possessed were as a result of his nature, furthering the notion that readers should find him completely guilty and assign him the role of the antagonist. This directly juxtaposed Perry’s traumatic past, from his mother and father separating, abuse by the nuns, humiliation, his brother committing suicide, and his falling out with the only family member he loved. Narrating Perry’s life story was a way for Capote to convince the readers that Perry was undeserving of his punishment, and it also insinuated that the murders could have been evaded, if it wasn’t for his “abysmal past” (Plimpton). Capote gives the reader a first hand look into these events by including the biography Perry’s father wrote about him titled “A History into My Boy’s Life”(Capote 197). In the document Perry was described as “touchie”, with his feelings being “easily hurt,” indicating his childlike tendencies which served as an emotional appeal (Capote 201). These tendencies are depicted on multiple occasions, such as when Dick and Perry had picked up a sick grandfather and his grandson on their way to Galveston. Dick proposed the idea of leaving them stranded since the grandfather seemed like he was going to die, to which Perry replied “Go ahead. Put them out. But I’ll be getting out, too,” which was something that a child would say in a tantrum (Capote 317). In another case Detective Al Dewey, who attended the hanging of both convicts recounted Perry’s lifeless body by saying that he says his “same childish feet, tilted, and dangled” (Capote 513). Capote intentionally rendered Perry as a child to evoke a sense of pity and sadness around his death, by indirectly comparing the tragedy of his hanging to the death of a child, which any human would find gut-wrenching and morally wrong. The childlike spirit of Perry was a focal point in influencing the readers to view him as a character of innocence, and ultimately acted as an excuse that the reader could make for his inexcusable actions.

Dick and Perry’s psychiatric evaluations, which were performed to assess whether the mental health of the convicts played a role in their crimes, were undeniable examples of how Capote used selective details to promote his opinions. Capote made sure to assert that Dick was “above average intelligence” and that he seemed to be “in good contact with reality” (Capote 443). These findings undermined any of Dick’s mental issues as a result of an accident he had years ago, or the “severe character disorder” that was also diagnosed, since the reader would have already assumed Dick to be capable of deciphering right from wrong and completely aware of his fault in the crime. Considering the fact that the assessment was not actually reported in the trial, the addition of this information merely presented another reason that Dick was far from innocent. Parallel to this was Capote’s mention of the article “Murder without Apparent Motive- A Study in Personality Disorganization”, as it explained the distinction between sane and insane muderers, indicating that Perry fit the ‘insane’ mold, which entailed “primitive violence, born out of previous, and now unconscious, traumatic experiences” (Capote 450). Including this information compels the readers to associate Perry’s convoluted state of mind with his actions, making him seem like someone who is unfit to be considered for capital punishment. Capote addressed this same rationale in the interview when he said that Perry’s “life was a constant accumulation of disillusionments and reverses” and that on the night that the murders took place “he found himself in a psychological cul-de-sac” (Plimpton). A cul de sac is a metaphor that Capote used to have the audience understand the mental “dead end” that Perry had reached, and in turn helps to lessen the severity of his crimes in the reader’s mind, because he was depicted as a helpless sole. The correlation between Capote’s personal beliefs and the selected information fed to the readers in the novel is clear cut.

All in all, Truman Capote utilized a tone of contrast and juxtaposition between Dick and Perry to help shape the opinion of characters within the audience and push his agenda on the injustice committed against Perry. As he admitted in his interview with George Plimpton, he had “often thought of a book as being something reduced to a seed”, and that he makes “ [his] own comment by what [he] chooses to tell and how [he] chooses to tell it”, which is apparent in the manner that his narration detailed each character (Plimpton).

Truman Capote is one of the most famous and controversial writers in contemporary American literature. He was a flamboyant character, cultivating eccentricity and a certain taste for scandal, as you can guess from this self-portrait: ‘I am a alcoholic. I am a drug addict. I am a homosexual. I am a genius.” In turn adulated and criticized, he was one of the most controversial figures of his time. He entered literature at the age of nineteen with his novels, but it is with the invention of a new genre, the non-fiction novel, that he entered posterity. Non-fiction novel is a combination of fiction and journalism, he invented it with his novel In Cold Blood, published in 1965, which made sensation at the time. tones. Capote’s flamboyant public persona and battles with drugs brought him as much attention as his writing and made him a symbol of the artistic excesses that characterized New York’s writers in the minds of the public during the 60s and 70s.

So onto his life and persona, to help us better understand his work.

Capote was born Truman Streckfus Persons in New Orleans, Louisiana on September 30, 1924, He experienced family instability from a very young age: the parental couple was not solid and his mother collected lovers, often leaving him on his own which left him with a lifelong fear of abandonment. At the age of 6 Truman was sent to his cousins in Monroeville, Alabama. He lived there for 3 years, and kept on visiting them throughout the decade. His mother when she had time for him used to lock him in hotel rooms so she could go out at night. According to Truman Capote, the memory of that key turning kept on haunting him in his adult life. In Alabama he met Nelle Harper Lee, his next-door neighbor, and their began a life-long friendship that will last until his death. NHL will later win the Pulitzer Price for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird, in which Capote appears as the character Dill

In 1932, his mother, who remarried a businessman, Joseph Capote, took him to live in New York. His stepfather legally adopted him and Truman Persons became Truman Capote. At that time, Capote’s mother began her descent into alcoholism, often flyin into violent rages at him because of his homosexuality. Truman did not do well in school, he was only focused on his writting, determined to be a famous writer.

He left the school system at 17 and worked from 1941 to 1945 as a freelancer at the New Yorker. He published his first short stories at that time in Mademoiselle and Harper’s Bazaar. The directors of these magazines, influential figures in literature, detected his exceptional talent. It gave him the ability to quickly climb the ladder of literary fame.

In 1946, Capote got away from his mother and found refuge in Yaddo, a residence which hosted writers, musicians and artists, in the State of New York. There he met Newton Arvin, a literature teacher. During the two years that their liaison lasted, he spent each weekend with the one who gave him the training he had not received at university. He later paid tribute to him by saying that ‘Arvin was [his] Harvard’.

In his entire life as a writer, Truman Capote wrote only fifteen short stories. Their particular charm owes a lot to the marvelous or fantastic character of their stories, to their light irony. Their poetic style abounds with original images and his characters remain in the memory of the reader. It is thanks to this novels, and in particular to Miriam published by Mademoiselle in 1945, that the New York literary community will recognize her talent. Capote, like his literary contemporaries Norman Mailer and Gore Vidal, was known as much for his public persona as for his writing. He was soon well known for his distinctive, high-pitched voice and odd vocal mannerisms, his offbeat fashion style and his extroverted persona.

Dark places by Gillian Flynn and In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, similarly use symbolism to discuss major themes within the novel such as the American dream, memory and true crime through the use of narrative of crime events.

Symbolism and figurative imagery is used within both texts as a voice to express the writer’s inner thoughts, commenting on themes such as identity, memory and the duality of human nature. Capote’s work uses these literary devices to craft his take on ‘new journalism” allowing the reader to fully immerse themselves into the novel by creating a mental image of the subject matter. Capote characterises himself in the novel as Alvin Dewey who reports on crime through an objective standpoint. Flynn however, uses a first-person perspective to the subjective experience of Libby who is a victim to society’s obsession with true crime, using dual narrative which runs parallel throughout the novel.

Gillian Flynn uses Dark places to criticise the obsession society has with true crime, and the oppressive response from American society. In contrast, Truman Capote exploits this obsession by crafting novels that appeal to the fetishes of American society.

Within the first encounters of Libby she remarks on being invited to a meeting with a group called the ‘Kill Club’. The irony of the name ‘kill club’ creates a comedic undertone, which suggest Flynn’s views on American attitudes towards society, and the lack of seriousness it is given. When Libby meets the ‘devotees’ they ask to ‘pick her brain’ and uses idiom to convey the lack of humanisation we have when referring to crime. Furthermore, Libby remarks ‘everyone has their own crime they’re obsessed with’ which comments on the idea that it is human nature to be drawn to crisis, however Flynn negatively remarks on the idea that obsession in true crime disconnects ourselves from the severity and loss of life it causes, as we regard it as more of an ‘exciting hobby’.

Dark places is set in the 1980s, where America experienced a battle between the Satanic cult hysteria and the traditional Christian society. The satanic cult fought for freedom and as an expressionism for the darker side of humanity which crime cultivates. Ben represents that anyone who deviates from traditional norms and values have to find other ways to compensate. The ‘phone cord’ is a symbol for Ben’s secretive side, and the oppressiveness of American society. Teens were not guaranteed privacy as there was one main telephone central in the house that could be listened to via other telephones in the house. Despite Ben only being 15, he demands he has his own ‘line splitter’ that separates the house and causes his parents to ‘trip over that godang phone cord’. Ben’s demand for privacy highlights the shame and guilt he feels through appreciating the satanic cult and his love for ‘dark places’, which ultimately foreshadows the family’s death as this phone line ultimately leads to the plotting of the massacre. This shows Flynn is conveying the guilt and shame that is shone upon anyone who does not encompass the cultivated norm of a ‘christian family’.

Similarly, Capote crafts his novel in a new literary- genre to take events from the contemporary world and elevate them to reflect broader truths about humanity. Unlike Flynn, Capote believes in exploiting society’s true crime fetish, creating a novel that his audience can indulge into shamelessly.

In some aspects, Flynn and Capote’s views on crime relate. Both authors work to humanise the ‘killers’ and break the disconnection we have to crime. Capote uses humanising language within the book to defy the stigma society has created around killers and allow us to see them in more human terms. When investigating the crimes prior to the book, Capote controversially interviewed Dick and Perry in length and is claimed to be seen eating dinner with them and buying them gifts.

When the murders are first discovered, Perry and Dick are regarded to as “persons unknown,” using cold language that elevates them into an inhuman, almost mythic stature. Capote, however, replaces this simplistic view with a more sensitive interpretation, by referring to them with nouns such as ‘men’ and ‘beings’, and referring to them with collective pronouns such as ‘our’ and ‘us. This conveys Capote’s close relationship with them, which allows him to easily craft a close comprehensive eye on their behaviour and nature as beings. This on one hand allows us to trust his judgement due to his insider knowledge, yet could also be seen to cause biassed interpretations as his own thoughts and feelings being close to them causes him to see their crimes in a pitiful way which opposes society’s views on criminals.

Throughout the novel, Perry and Dick are transformed from heartless, ‘cold-blooded’ menaces, whose actions seem to defy human logic, into the fraught, humanised individuals they are at the end of the book, and the crime itself is boiled down to a very basic and fairly understandable set of emotional responses. Although he does not attempt to excuse their actions, Capote shows how ordinary feelings of frustration and despair accidentally erupt into such an extraordinary crime. The book seems to contend that criminality is ‘evil’ and criticises society’s need to frame killers as ‘monsters’ or ‘inhumane’ in order to justify the incomprehensible nature of their actions. Capote’s new take on true crime therefore deconstructs this stigma by creating dimensional characters that we can connect with to diminish the original monstrous criminals other true-crime novels construct.

Both In Cold Blood and Dark places shape the narrative using figurative language and extended metaphors to contrast the themes of human duality and the idyllic American dream. There is a saying that identity is not something we ‘receive’ but something we create. To some this is true, however both novels defy this idea as we follow the path of each criminal until they encompass everything society expects of them.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote uses analepsis to show Dick Hickok and Perry Smith were normal men before they turned into criminals. In one of our first encounters with Perry, he flashbacks to an occurrence that haunts him and led him to be forced with an identity. One late evening, a woman kept ‘glancing’ back at him, ‘increasing her rate of movement’. Eventually she ended up ‘running away’. Perry acknowledged the intimadence of his look making him ‘indisguistable from the muggers’. Perry realised that night that an image and identity was created for him before he had a chance to create one. Capote uses this analepsis to add morality to Perry and criticise society’s need to assume and hide from anyone who is not fit to the standards of the idyllic ‘humble man’ the American dream upholds.

Later in the novel, Perry talks about his tattoos of ‘orange-eyed red fanged tigers’ and ‘spitting snakes’ that slithers down his arms. Perry’s tattoo is an attempt at becoming more masculine and ‘scary’ which conveys his fulfilment of this ‘brash’ and intimidating identity society brands him with. The tattoos are symbolic as they are above the skin’s surface and can be seen and judged way before we encounter someone. Furthermore, tattoos hold a lot of stigma within society due to their harsh and bold appeal. The sibilant imagery of ‘spitting snakes’ also creates connotations of Perry’s animalistic nature, and reduces him down to a simple trigger and response, which mirrors the way society regards criminals, dehumanising them and distancing ourselves from them in order to offer ‘black and white explanations’.

In contrast, Capote juxtaposes this with Perry’s ‘softness’ and ‘untempt kindness’ which emphasises his true self he feels he is unable to show in society. The symbolism of ‘spitting snakes’ connects to the philosophy Capote conceptualises that ‘If you keep poking a snake, it’ll eventually bite’. This represents Capote’s allegory that society’s neglect and isolation has led to Perry’s final rebellion. This shows society’s vision is a relentless force within the novel that causes Perry to never be able to break through the identity society gives him.

Identity is also shaped within In Cold Blood by juxtaposing Dick and Perry to the idyllic existence of the Clutter family. Capote shifts narrative voice into an intrusive third person narrative to provide different perspectives on events allowing the reader to build a link between the ordinary lives of both the Clutters and the murderers. The motif of the American dream intertwines throughout the novel as society is shown to almost create criminals by making people desire things even if it is impossible for them to achieve it. The dream hinges on the idea that you have to be happy before you can achieve happiness, this illustrates Capote’s point about the American dream; by chasing after something more than what you have, you can lose the things that matter most to you, which in their case is their life. Hickock and Smith are both constantly pursuing a sensational lifestyle, believing that when they are through with the Clutters’, they will be rich, and therefore happy and be able to become what society wants of them.

When Dick and Perry stumble across the landscape, they realise that ‘this huge country which seems to promise so much, can deliver so little’. This uses personification to highlight how vast the country seems in juxtaposition to how isolated they are. The verb ‘stumble’ emphasises their unwelcomeness and neglect to its promises. This motivates the beginnings of deriving ‘evil’ as they are confronted with the Clutter family who have an idyllic existence in Holcomb. Herb Clutter has risen from ‘modest beginnings’ to becoming a ranch owner with a comfortable lifestyle. He encapsulates the identity of the self-made man. The Clutters’ simple, modest lifestyle shows that the dream is simple in what it entails; being able to own your own land and live off of it, being able to provide for your family, being able to create your own personna and fate.

Perry and Dick see the Clutters to resemble everything they are not: they struggle with money, are rejected by society and have no sense of family belonging. Capote uses this to symbolise that Perry and Dick’s fate were already determined even before the killings, their view of the world being ‘rootless’ shows the dream was never an option in the first place which reinforces the view that society has neglected them, and causes them to become this criminal identity. This reflects Capote’s pessimistic view of the American dream. The American dream leads to nothing more or less than death in his eyes, no matter how you attempt to achieve it. Whether you try to achieve the American dream through peace or violence, legal or illegal methods, it doesn’t matter, because you’re still dying. The book illustrates our own human mortality, and ultimately shows how irrelevant the pursuit of the American dream is. After all, it doesn’t matter how happy you were, who you were, or whether you were a good person or not when you’re dead.

Does a man who brutally murdered four humans-for the sole reason that he had the power to-deserve any ounce of sympathy? “In Cold Blood”, Truman Capote uses “pathos” to appeal to the emotions of the readers about the two murderers, Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. Capote certainly sympathizes with and portrays one of the cold-blooded murderers in a positive light and portrays the other murderer as a despicable and disgusting human being. For instance, Capote utilizes righteous and simple diction to advocate Perry’s emphatic nature with choices like, “compassion” and “uncharitable”. Furthermore, the author’s piteous tone emphasizes the tragic and hopelessness of Perry’s life with choices like, “You think I like myself?” and “”. In addition, Capote’s tone and diction paints Dick as a tasteless, vicious creature who deserved to take the full blame of the murder. Lastly, there are several rhetorical strategies that author employs to encourage the audience to sympathize with Perry and to hate and despise Dick.

Capote’s diction makes Perry seem like a moral human being. For instance, Capote writes, “All along Dewey had argued that the mattress box had been placed on the floor for the comfort of Mr. Clutter, and taking heed of similar hints, other fragmentary indications of ironic, erratic compassion, the detective had conjectured that at least one of the killers was not altogether uncharitable.” that shows righteous word choice. The words “uncharitable”, “compassion”, and “comfort” are all extremely purposeful words that communicates Perry was not as heartless as he may seem. Pleading to the reader’s feelings, the diction depicts as Perry as a more caring person. Furthermore, when Dick says, “I’m gonna bust that little girl”, Perry responds with, “Uh-huh. But you’ll have to kill me first.”(Capote 243). With simple word choices like “bust” and “Uh-huh”, Capote conveys his purpose without flare. In this example, Dick wants to rape Nancy Clutter before killing her, but Perry refuses to let him do so. This reveals that Perry has morals, “Now that’s something I despise. Anybody that can’t control themselves sexually.”, and that Dick is a disgusting person who would rape an underage girl (Capote 243). Along with writing Perry as an actual human being with heroic qualities, Capote’s tone encourages the audience to sympathize with Perry’s tragic upbringing.

By using a piteous tone, Capote manages to draw the audience into sympathizing more with Perry because of his ugly childhood. Perry says, “You think I like myself?” when he is talking to his sole surviving sister (Capote 185). Not only does this exemplify pity, it shows that Perry has no self-confidence and that he realizes how his horrible childhood has shaped him into the man he is today. The audience feels sorrow for Perry because of this self-hating, desperate tone. Additionally, Capote says, “Here was someone offering help, a sane and respectable man who had once known and liked him, a man who signed himself friend.”(262). Again, it has a piteous and desperate tone. Capote emphasizes the word friend insinuating that Perry has no friends. Plus, it says that the people who knew Perry generally did not like him and if they did they were usually insane or criminals. Utilizing pathos, Capote sympathizes with Perry because he is a seemingly lonely man whom no one likes.

Capote utilizes other rhetorical strategies that paints Perry in a more positive light and illustrates Dick in a negative light. For example, he uses syntax, specifically dashes: “Nonetheless, [Dewey] found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger-with, rather, a measure of sympathy-for Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses, but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and another.” ( Capote 246). The dashes employed show that Dewey, one of the detectives on the Clutter murders case, does not feel anger but rather sympathy for Perry. If one of the detectives on the case can sympathize with Perry, it suggests that the reader can also. Furthermore, in this example, the author uses a metaphor: “…Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses, but pitiful…” (Capote 246) to compare Perry’s life to something else. The purpose of this is show how truly unfortunate his life was and further appeals to the reader to care for Perry. Adding on to this, the author decided to add anecdotes of Perry’s childhood to further create compassion from the audience. Capote writes, “Once, when he was a running-wild child in San Francisco, he and a ‘Chink kid’ (Tommy Chan? Tommy Lee?) had worked together as a ‘purse-snatching team’.” (192). The author goes on to describe a small story about how they robbed an old lady for ninety cents. It creates sympathy because Perry was still “an urchin dependent, so to say, on stolen coins” twenty years down the road (Capote 193). It is simply another example that shows how horrible and pitiful Perry’s life was that he had to steal to survive. Another anecdote is selected by the author to show that Dick’s life was privileged and normal compared to Perry’s: “My school years went quite the same as most other boys my own age. I had my share of fights, girls, and other things that go with a growing boy. My home life was also normal..”(Capote 277). The purpose of this anecdote is to show that despite that Dick had caring parents, was a good student, and possessed a bright future, he turned into a soulless killer, compared to Perry whose life no one would envy. Again, it appeals to the reader’s emotions, persuading us to pity Perry and despise Dick.

When comparing two books written by the same author, it is expected that you will be able to pick up on the authors’ special technique to make each of their books as intriguing as possible. This cannot be said about Truman Capote and his books “In Cold Blood,” and “Breakfast at Tiffanys.” When writing these books Capote was not just able to make each of them unique and special, but he also was able to affect many people and help to inspire a new style of writing. In writing “In Cold Blood,” Capote took a new route from his common writing style, and expressed new journalism. This greatly affected the way readers viewed this novel, because it gave a new perspective to Capote’s writing that he has never used before. Truman Capote will always be regarded as one of the greatest American novelists, with his most influential writings being “In Cold Blood,” and “Breakfast at Tiffanys.” While his writings are unlike any other, he does in fact have a past of being controversial, this is due to his struggle with addiction and abuse of drugs. This goes to show that while someone can write such amazing novels and seem as if their lives are amazing, they can also be going through a lot behind the scenes. Writings such as “Breakfast at Tiffanys,” parallel to Capote’s life for example, Capote seemed caught between a spirit of satisfaction and the longing for something deeper. Just like the characters that he created for the novel “In Cold Blood,” those characters face dark times and struggle with finding ways to make their lives better.

The two stories “In Cold Blood ” and “Breakfast at Tiffanys,” give great examples of Truman Capote’s unique writing style. While his writing is not only incredibly interesting to study, it is also very hard to understand. When looking at the book “In Cold Blood,” at first it becomes easy to pick up on Capote’s writing style but just as quick as you pick up on it, it changes. Capote is able to take journalism and work it into fiction in a way that makes his stories seem far from fiction. This is where Capote’s talent shows, for example an article writes “Capote’s style is objective and is highly innovative prose; it combines the factual accuracy of journalism with the emotive impact of fiction. He understood the suspense that could be garnered by lengthy descriptions and by letting his characters speak extensively.” This quote explains how people pick up on his way of portraying a story as if it actually happened in real life. Capote’s writing style is found again in the book “In Cold Blood ” when looking at how he portrays characters, for example he is able to use language devices such as similes, symbolism, and diction to develop Perry Smith throughout the story. As the story plays out, diction plays a big role in developing Perry Smiths character, to the point where it suggests reasons for the murder. While other authors and writers use their special techniques to pull in the reader, I believe that Capote uses the best technique to catch the reader’s attention and focus.

Building suspense is arguably the most important part of writing a story, while writers like Stephen King and Anne Cleeves do an amazing job at this specific technique, the way that Truman Capote builds suspense is unmatched. Books such as “In Cold Blood,” give great examples of how Capote is able to catch the reader’s attention using suspense, for example Capote switches between killers’ perspectives and their plan to commit their next crime. I find that Capote does the best job at building suspense when he uses subtle things that point toward a major event in the story, causing the reader to try to draw their own conclusion as to what might possibly happen, for example in the book “In Cold Blood,” Capote gives hints such as Mr Clutter purchasing life insurance the day before he dies, and Nacy writing down things about her day that she finds boring and constant before she also dies. Nacy’s journaling about her daily life also gives an important life lesson about how life can be boring at times, but things can change instantly and even though your life is boring, it’s still better than not having it. Finding suspense in a book that is about crime and mystery is quite simple due to the fact that suspense is commonly found in those types of books, but where suspense is not often found is in a romantic novel. This is where Capote truly shows his talent, in the Novella “Breakfast at Tiffanys,” Capote finds a way to build suspense using his ability to elongate certain situations that are happening in a story, for example he uses Holly getting arrested for her participation in Sally Tomato’s drug ring to build suspense and let the reader wonder what her fate will be. Truman Capote’s use of suspense and foreshadowing is fairly well recognized in the “writing world,” and throughout my research I did not find one article that did not talk about this talent of his.

One of the most important parts to focus on when studying a writer’s work, is their use of literary lenses. Truman Capote does a great job at using literary lenses, especially in his book “In Cold Blood,” which depicts the corrupt and evil society that we live in. The most evident literary lense that is used in the book “In Cold Blood,” is a historic lense. I say this in regard to how Capote feels about the current state of our country and people at the time, It seems as if he believes that the older times were much simpler and less crime and hatred was directed toward other people, whereas now people are filled with hatred which is leading toward killing other people in cold blood. Many of Capote’s writings use at least one literary lense, but many of them do not make as much of a statement as the one in the book “Breakfast at tiffanys.” The Literary lense that is used in this Novella is a femnist lense, while this sounds unusual due to “Breakfast at Tiffanys” being a book about a girl named Holly being the “play-thing” to a bunch of rich white men, I believe that there is a deeper meaning behind it. Holly proves that she is not only self-sufficient, but she is also able to empower other women. Capote’s intention when he created Holly, was to portray her to be ‘a prototype of today’s liberated female’ in a 1968 Playboy interview. When researching Capote’s use of literary lenses, I found it to be difficult because of the way that he is able to hide it in a sense.

Truman Capote’s writing is recognized for many reasons due to his ability to use real events and turn them into an exciting and itricit novel. He does this by taking journalism and mixing it into fiction to create an amazing work of literary perspectives known as new journalism, but some people despise this due to the way journalism and fiction do not go together. This did not stop Capote, and because of this unique style of writing he has been recognized by many mainstream media outlets, for example this article states “The playwright and novelist Truman Capote became a central figure in the New Journalism in 1965 when The New Yorker magazine serialized Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, about the murder of a family of four in their home near Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. Capote spent six years reporting and writing the piece.” This quote goes to show that he was one of the main leaders in this new wave of writing style that he created. Like the quote above states, “In Cold Blood,” is the picture child when it comes to discussing Capote’s use of New journalism. New journalism is found close to immediately when reading “In Cold Blood,” due to Capote’s ability to not only humanize the characters in the novel no matter what their role is, but also to switch perspectives and show the reader what a character is feeling in that moment and their struggles. . Due to Capote’s novel “In Cold Blood” being published 4 years after “Breakfast at Tiffanys,” the use of new journalism is not found in “Breakfast at Tiffanys.” This is quite easy to pick up once you start to read the novel “Breakfast at Tiffanys,” because immediately you can see that the book does not use change of perspectives or narration the way that it is used in “In Cold Blood.” This amazing trait that Capote was able to acquire for himself has left a major impact on many other authors, and it has changed the way many people write, but also read novels.

While many may think Capote did not know of his incredible ability to write novels and short stories, he often acknowledged it in a confident manner in interviews. For example, one of his most famous quotes reads “ I think I’ve written one masterpiece in my career and that’s ‘In Cold Blood’. It is a masterpiece and I don’t care what anyone says. I think I’ve also written three or four short stories that are as good as anything written in the English language.” Capote was a very confident man that knew his skills and accomplishments, and he never neglected to tell people that. Many of his famous quotes come off as “cocky” in a sense, for example one of his quotes states “Writing stopped being fun when I discovered the difference between good writing and bad and, even more terrifying, the difference between it and true art. And after that, the whip came down” – Truman Capote. This quote to a person that does not know Capote may come off as too confident, but for the people that know Capote’s personality, this quote would look completely normal if not a bit censored. This personality played a big role in many of Capote’s writings, but eventually it got the best of him when he created a novel called “Answered Prayers.” According to Capote, this novel was supposed to be his best yet, saying to Peoples Magazine that he created the characters in a way that they would be disguised but in reality they were his friends in real life. His goal going into writing this novel was to “Execute” his friends, with his pen being the gun. This caused Capote to lose everything, friends, reputation, desire to write, and most of all himself. Many critics were appalled that he so cold heartedly exposed his friends, and not in just a mean way, he exposed things from audulty all the way to murder.

The summer of 1984, Truman Capote’s life ended after he lost a battle to liver disease. I believe that Capote’s downfall started once he fell into his drug and alcohol addiction, his writings became scattered and he was not the same author that wrote “In Cold Blood,” or “Breakfast at Tiffanys.” Watching a person with such talent fall into addiction is one of the hardest things to see, especially when it is someone that does not have a person to lead them into a better direction. I believe that Truman Capote’s life would have lasted much longer if he had someone that was able to guide him throughout his life. With his name being connected to the start of new journalism, Truman Capote will always go down as one of the most innovative and influential writers ever. Although his career ended in a rough manner, his works will continue to inspire many more writers, and his legacy will be carried on through new journalism