Analysis Of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is the first ever of the “true-crime” genre that sparked a literary revolution. Capote collected a tremendous amount of information to write In Cold Blood and spent the better part of six years interviewing these convicted murderers and learned them better than anyone else. In Cold Blood tells the story of the Clutter family and the two men who murdered them in the dead of night. Capote wrote this book with the intention of making it a nonfiction novel, meaning that while the events are true, it also has some components of a story. The fact that it is a story and such an entertaining story haunts readers because being entertained by a murder that genuinely happened is something that would make anyone question their

One of the many ways Capote adds to the disturbing nature of In Cold Blood is when he uses traditional story-like elements to make the entire situation more whimsical and less real. One example of this is at the beginning of the novel when Capote describes the events of the lives of both the Clutter family and the murderers. He switches between their lives to lay out the timeline leading up to the murder; each section leading up to the event in question gets progressively shorter, thus building suspense for what the readers know is going to happen to this innocent family. This way of writing is entertaining to readers because of this suspense and situational irony, while in real life, Dick and Perry were just small-time crooks who wanted money and Herb Clutter happened to be the richest man in town. Similar to this is after the Clutters are dead and Capote juxtaposes the happenings in the

For most of the sections focusing on Dick and Perry, the narration is from Perry’s point of view, already highlighting Capote’s partiality to Perry. Capote often fixates on Perry’s softer, more sensitive artful side to make him seem less like a vicious killer, like when Perry was in prison awaiting his death sentence for a quadruple homicide, he would paint pictures of his fellow inmates’ children for them. Conversely, the main source of empathy one feels for Dick is from the fact that he did not have the resolve to kill the Clutter family. He was by no means a good person, but the fact that he could not proceed with the murders makes one feel almost bad for him. Capote even compels the reader to feel empathy for Perry when faced with his backstory and the letter from his father vouching for his goodness and standing up for his son who he sees as a decent person. The reader is compelled to feel guilt for Perry and to wish that he could do better. Dick’s backstory is not one of sadness but of wasted potential. Dick could have gone to college on a football scholarship, but ended as a convicted murderer. Even the rain, which was just the weather and nothing more, stirs up feelings in the reader’s chest that makes one want to reach out and yell to stop the executions. The fact that Perry said “Maybe I had something to contribute,