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Imagery In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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Imagery is prevalent throughout In Cold Blood, a novel written by Truman Capote about a rather wealthy family, The Clutters, that were suddenly murdered in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959. Capote used imagery in In Cold Blood to describe the surroundings that every scene is taking place in and how people can be shaped by them.

In the beginning of the novel, Capote uses imagery to describe the Kansas town of Holcomb and uses that description to contrast with the brutal murders of the Clutter family. He says that “the land is flat” and that Holcomb is a “lonesome area” to emphasize the isolation and relative quietness of Holcomb. Capote makes it seem that nothing bad could happen there. When the murders finally take place, they are described in visceral …show more content…

When Perry was a child, he grew up around an abusive father that drove Perry and his mother and siblings away. Eventually, His mother started drinking so that meant that Perry had to bounce from orphanages and foster homes where he got beaten by the nuns there. Due to his emotional and physical abuse, he often imagines a bird coming in to rescue him from any harm that comes his way. After going into the Army and being discharged, He has a serious motorcycle accident that damages his legs. Eventually, he gets picked up hitchhiking by a guy who thinks that it would be a good idea to rob a store which, in turn, pushes Perry into having a criminal lifestyle. This of course led to the killings of the Clutter family. So when referring to Perry,Capote uses light imagery and a sympathetic tone like “prophesied” but as the story goes on, it turns into a more aggressive tone towards Perry like when he begins to state more of Perry’s issues like his “already dangerous anti-social instincts.”

Capote uses imagery the way he does to convey an important message that people can react to certain situations and act according to their surroundings. He wants the reader how people from a small, isolated town react to a murder and how a man who has been abused his whole life transforms into a criminal and eventually a murderer.Capote wanted to captivate his audience with his

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