Use Of Rhetorical Devices In Cold Blood

Gavin Lettau
Mrs. Koshollek
01/26/2023
2nd Hour CAPP English

In Cold Blood and its use of rhetorical devices
Within the small town of Holcomb Kansas, despite its prowess for being a rural midwestern town known for the acres of peaceful fields and grazing animals This however had fallen into disarray upon the discovery of the current mortality of the Clutter family household. Truman Capote exemplifies the tale surrounding the crime, the investigation, and the eventual capture of the two ex-convicts responsible through the usage of mortifying imagery, descriptive environmental imagery, and theatrical foreshadowing to provide the audience a window of perspective into not only those who were responsible but also gives clarity to the victim's actions

For instance, when describing the characteristics inherited by the local post office it is depicted as a building worn by time and misuse “The depot itself, with its peeling sulpher-colored paint, is equally melancholy; the Chief, the Super-Chief, the El Capitan go by every day, but these celebrated expresses never pause there.” (Capote 2). Not only does this highlight one of the many key features of the township of Holcomb, but it also later serves as a location of the incident as the reader progresses through the narrative. Alongside this analysis, Capote also makes note to describe numerous other buildings that had over time been repossessed and attuned for a more generalized purpose “The bank closed in 1933, and its former counting rooms have been converted into apartments.” (Capote

This is notably found when Capote makes mention of the total death toll of the Clutter family murder, “At the time not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard them---four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.” (Capote 4). With this in mind, other mentions of foreshadowing very similarly instill a sense of curiosity and dread as the readers are intentionally left to their own devices establishing a progressive rise in tension within the