Death Penalty In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

“Thirty years ago, prosecution seemed deemed to take my life from me. They didn’t just take me from my family and friends. They had every intention of prosecuting me for something I didn’t do.” –Anthony Ray Hinton. On October 12, 2016 I attended a speech by Anthony Ray Hinton at the Johnson Fine Arts Center on Northern State University’s Campus in Aberdeen, SD. Anthony Hinton spoke to us about his time on death row, and the events leading up to arrest, conviction, and being exonerated. He was there to inform us on his experience and the injustice that can come with the death penalty. This eventually leads to him trying to persuade the audience to take action to get rid of the death penalty. As a strong believer of the death penalty, Hinton’s

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote was a crime novel that shock many people in the world because of how a small town family is kill out of nowhere by deformed murders and also how a community would be affected by this conflict. Also, Capote is successful of bringing the murders Dick and Perry back to live. Capote makes them too sympathetic because of how he expresses their mental health, their harsh backstories and the trial that take place in part 4. These three reasons make Capote successful of bringing the murders back to life.

It all started on the night of November 14, 1959, when two young men came to Holcomb, Kansas. They first came to rob the Clutters, but when finding there was not ten thousand dollars in the house like they were told, they thoughtlessly killed all four of them, for only forty bucks and a little radio. The men were finally caught, but forced to stand on trial with people who already want the two men dead, which puts the town in favor of capital punishment, before the trial had even started. The two young men, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, were sentenced to the death penalty. The book In Cold Blood, I believe, is for the capital punishment. There were two men who were brutally honest, one saying, “ I believe in capital punishment, it’s like the bible says- and eye for an eye. And even so were two pairs short.” The other man was asked if he was for or against the capital punishment, he response was, “ Ordinarily i’m against it, but in this case no.”

Truman Capote, who was born Truman Streckfus Persons on September 30, 1924, in New Orleans, Louisiana, was one of the most well-known American writer of his time. His ability to say clever and amusing things and his overt homosexuality kept him on television and in magazines as a major personality. He worked for The New Yorker magazine where he wrote articles and short stories. Many of his stories were about bizarre incidents and were adapted for stage and film. Later, he started to write nonfiction novels in which he combined fact and fiction. In Cold Blood, which describes the mysterious murder of four members of a Kansas family, The Clutters, was the most known and best seller nonfiction novel. At the beginning, it started out as an article for The New Yorker, then it was published in January 1966 in book form.

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a true story of a quadruple homicide in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas that greatly impacted the community in 1959. Capote begins his novel by introducing a prominent, well respected family in the community, the Clutters. The Clutters lived average everyday lives until they were abruptly ended at the mercy of a 12 gauge shotgun. The killers were two men unknown to the Clutters, who had two completely different backgrounds and personalities. By choosing to include details about each of the killers, Capote delineates the differences between psychopaths and sociopaths and suggests that the combination of the two personality disorders creates the environment for horrific

Truman Capote, the author of In Cold Blood, creates sympathy for almost every character the reader comes across. Through the use of manipulating the reader's emotions and connecting them to each character, Capote successfully pulls it off. There are four main groups that Capote chooses to create sympathy for the murder victims, the murderers, the law officials involved, and the ordinary citizens of Holcomb, Kansas. Truman Capote created the most sympathy for two characters, Perry Smith and Detective Dewey.

Throughout In Cold Blood, Truman Capote hints at his own opinion of the death penalty, yet lets the readers decide for themselves what they believe Hickock and Smith's punishment should have been. When the murderers are being hanged, a conversation occurs between a reporter and an investigator about what it might feel like to be hanged: "'They don't feel nothing. Drop, snap, and that's it. They don't feel nothing.' 'Are you sure? I was standing right close. I could hear him gasping for breath.' 'Uh-huh, but he don't feel nothing. Wouldn't be humane if he did'" (340). Furthermore, Capote includes the amount of time before Lowell Lee Andrews and Dick Hickock died. From the time of hanging to the time their hearts ceased beating, it took nineteen and twenty minutes, respectively. Also, in preparation for the trial of the Clutter family murderers, doctors did psychiatric evaluations of the pair. Capote includes what the doctors would have said had they been allowed to elucidate during the trial. The evaluations suggest that Hickock and Smith might have been better off in a mental institution. By including the conversation at the hangings, the elapsed time before death, and the doctors' unspoken evaluation, Capote suggests that neither the death penalty nor hanging is always the best course of action for a person's crime. Contrastingly, the opposite opinion is revealed through the character Alvin Dewey in the book. Capote writes about Dewey’s beliefs on the case: “[The Clutter family] had experienced prolonged terror, they had suffered. And Dewey

How crazy would it be to interview criminals who murdered 4 people in cold blood? Well that’s exactly what Truman Capote did in this chilling book. In the novel In Cold Blood, Truman Capote used different rhetorical strategies to create sympathy and influence the idea that there are always two sides to every story. Some of the mainly used rhetorical strategies throughout the novel were imagery, diction, tone, and pathos. Furthermore, Capote also illustrated sympathetical emotion towards both types of characters, the protagonists and antagonists. Additionally, Capote expressed the idea of there being two sides to every story for both the protagonist and antagonist. By doing so, he used a unique writing style to help develop the story. In Cold

English is a fascinating and riveting language. Subtle nuances and adjustments can easily change the understanding of a literary work—a technique many authors employ in order to evoke a desired response from their readers. This method is used especially in In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, a literary work which details a true event about the murders of four members of the Clutter family in the small community of Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. Although Capote’s 1966 book was a bestseller nonfiction and had successfully garnered acclaim for its author, there is still a great deal of confusion about the distinction between the factual and fictional aspects in the book. Much

Typically upon hearing about a murder, especially a brutal and unwarranted one, we find ourselves feeling a great sense of disgust for the murderer or murderers who committed these crimes; however, in Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood, the lives and experiences of the murderers, particularly Perry Smith, are displayed in a way the makes you feel pity for him as well as the victims. When comparing Capote’s Novel to a typical news article on a similar topic it is easy to see the that Capote's style varies from typical journalism. An article written by Frances Robles and Nikita Stewart titled “Dylan Roof’s Past Reveals Trouble at Home and School,” discusses the childhood and background of Dylann Roof, a twenty-one

Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, effectively explores the effects of the Clutter family’s unexpected murder on the small community of Holcomb, Kansas. This unexpected murder had lasting and detrimental effects on the people of the town. Having been in Kansas during the time the trials and court cases had been executed, Capote observed that the murder had destroyed the community’s sense of trust, shattered their image of the American Dream, and prompted them to reevaluate their stance on the death penalty.

Although in In Cold Blood, Truman Capote is illustrating the aftermath of the murders, his prime motive is to humanize and create sympathy for Perry; therefore he asserts that the Law is biased and cruel to those who commit crimes.

He presents all the events by way of an anonymous narrator who reveals all the events from a detached viewpoint. Through Part II the killers are presented more sympathetically. For instance, Capote tells the reader about the hard life Perry Smith has had throughout the book. Perry lived at different orphanages and Salvation Army homes. One nurse would even “fill a tub up of ice cold water, put [Perry] in it, and hold [him] under till [he] was blue.”(128). Capote quickly describes the murder in Part I yet a majority of the novel is constructed upon the lives of those murderers. Capote was basically a lead investigator in this murder, as he was doing research from the start. As the book progressed, so did the sympathy for Dick and Perry. That progression by Capote led to the skewing of facts, which was enough to change the book to a fiction

After most people hear what Perry has gone through you immediately give him a get out of jail free card right? You think that since he had a difficult upbringing he should be exempt from receiving the death penalty? Although you may think this, this is certainly not an excuse for such a violent act. Throughout In Cold Blood, Capote attempts to portray to the reader that Smith in a way should be exempt from the crime he commited and how one should not blame it on Smith himself, but his psychological background. Specifically when Al Dewey, the head of the Clutter murder investigation, states how the crime was not in fact Smiths fault. Dewey says, “The crime was a psychological accident, virtually an impersonal act; the victims might as well have been killed by lightning. Except for one thing: they had experienced prolonged terror, they had suffered. And Dewey could not forget their sufferings. Nonetheless, he 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 or another.” Capote is attempting to show the audience how one should feel

The non-fiction novel ‘In Cold Blood’ interestingly begins as a fiction novel would-with the author setting up the scene of the gruesome quadruple murder about to take place, unbeknownst to the victims. Capote describes the isolated flatlands of rural Kansas, and introduces the victims and their killers as if they were the main characters of a fictional murder mystery.