Griffin Imelio Mrs. Morrison AP English Language and Composition 3 September 2014 In Cold Blood Truman Capote 1. ‘’The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.” Some 70 miles east of the country side, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air, has an atmosphere that is rather more Far West than Middle West....The land is flat and the views are awesomely extensive: herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.’’ (3). Being the first sentence of the novel, this quote explains and gives a good description of the town of Holcomb. This piece of information about Holcomb …show more content…
Just this quote alone describes how twisted his mind was. The imagery used drew me in because it described how calm he was yet right on the edge of crazy. It makes you wonder how the killer can be so sensitive one moment and then so violent then next. The author used a lot of descriptive words throughout the book especially when the victims dead bodies were described how they were found. Things get carried away during the robbery when he realizes there is no money in the house. Instead of breaking a few things in the house or yelling and screaming, out of frustration, he and Dick kill the family! They were so angry and full of rage when they realized there was no safe full of money. So why not just get out of there and find another person or place to rob? It seems to me there was so much adrenaline between the two of them that they took their anger out on the family. They went into the house wanting to intimidate the family and take all the money but when things didn’t work out as planned, both of the murderers went crazy. If there was a safe full of money, I think the Clutters would still be …show more content…
Now and then, however, there were times of panic, when they squealed or wanted to squeal but couldn’t, when they twitched and made moaning sounds and covered their heads and said Dear Jesus and flopped around on the earth and fired their weapons blindly and cringed and sobbed and begged for the noise to stop and went wild and made stupid promises to themselves and to God and to their mothers and fathers, hoping not to die.” The title of the book, The Things They Carried, has so many meanings after reading the book. In the beginning, O’Brien goes into such detail as to what the soldiers carried in their ruck sacks going as far to say how much each thing weighed. You got a really good sense of how hard it had to be to be marching with all that equipment. But as I continued to read, I think the mental baggage that they carried with them weighed so much more! This baggage doesn’t get any lighter either as the war goes on and even years after the war is over. That weight is still with them. I have always respected our military but now even more after reading this book. I understand a little bit more of the mental anguish they go through. I think this quote sums up the soldier’s thoughts and feelings. It’s normal to be afraid of things and to express your fears but it seems like in war you can’t. Other people are counting on you and looking to you for your strength and courage
In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis Essay Although Capote conveys the Clutters as a simple mid western family, his primary purpose was to display how pivotal the Clutters were to the flow and function of Holcomb’s community, therefore; Capote asserts that everything in life is a chain reaction, nothing just affects one individual. Though the Clutters are seen to be a typical mid western family, with their traditional values, hard working spirit as well as with their high standards of class and dignity. They are to Holcomb what an engine is for a car. They are essential for the town to run properly. This practically seen through Nancy, arguably the most upstanding of all of the Clutters.
Dick mentioned many times that he was going to rob them and kill any witnesses, including the
But Dick stole his father’s gun and plans to visit Perry’s sister. it foreshadows violence and murder. 10. Kenyon is not interested in girls and spends most of his time in the basement. He is an outsider.
During the discussion, I didn’t talk as much as I should have because for the questions that I didn’t raise my hand for I didn’t have an opinion for the discussion at hand, or at least I didn’t have a solid response that could be backed up with the text or generate more discussions among the group. For the two times that I did respond to someone’s response, I felt that I had a view worthy of being shared among my group, and this was supported when some of my peers agreed with the point I made and added their own view on top of mine. But for my second response, it was more like two responses which were included in one as a result of my wanting to respond to something that was mentioned before but that I wasn’t called on for, and for the most recent response at the time. The story closes with the image of a giggle to further convey to the reader that Mary’s mentally unstable.
Throughout life we experience hardships, and we use these past experiences to help us make future decisions that overall grow as human beings. In Tim O ‘ Brien’s novel “The Things They Carried,” the characters not only carry physical baggage but emotional ones as well. They are forced to feel the effects of war such as guilt, burdens, and other factors that come with being a soldier. Soldiers going into the war often went in with immense pride that they were serving their country however in doing this they didn’t know they would lose their innocence and see the world in a new perspective when they returned. “My hometown was a conservative little spot on the prairie, a place where tradition counted” (O’Brien 38) shows where O’Brien lived in a place where things like the draft were taken very seriously.
Throughout the story, Dick was always short of money, from college to his score, to travel to Mexico. When the golden opportunity of the Clutter household appears to Dick with his insatiable desire for riches, he decides to take it upon himself with a soon-to-be found accomplice to rob the family’s house. Dick’s dream of an easy life if the robbery is successful saturates his mind, and his past desires fog his mind in his incessant pursuit of wealth. This can be seen as he was easily deceived in prison by his mates that the Clutters had much money, where inmates fabricated a story in which “he (Dick) and (Perry) Smith invaded the Clutter home expecting to find a safe containing at least ten thousand dollars.” (Capote 351) His incorrigible chase for money acts as revenge, not to a specific person, but to the world.
Stating, after a hard day at work, Mr. Clutter would be extremely tired. Instead of telling the reader that Dick and Perry was about to take place. Truman also moves back and forth between Dick, Perry and the Clutters. The Tone used throughout the book in a very dark way. A relentless disturbing feeling as we get closer to the murder situation and murderers.
Tim O'Brien's “The Things They Carry,” tells a story about the lives of young men during war. The narrator tells his story from first person, marking all of his adventures and experiences of his companions. O’Brien crafts his piece through the use of repetition, symbolism, and metaphors to convey the idea of physical and psychological hardships of soldiers during war. Though the literary device of repetition, O'Brien portrays the physical and psychological hardships of a soldier.
Connor and his family feared for their own safety because they knew Alex was trying to pin the accident on Connor. Gloria’s family also feared what was going to happen to them because Alex promised them all this money, but they never got it. Stephen’s family just wanted closure on what happened to their son but since Buster's name was involved, the whole thing got covered up. These families all suffered the rath of the Murdaugh’s because their mother and children got involved with the family. Knowing this information helps spread awareness about the dangers of narcissism and how far people will go to keep their status in money and
Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy, and Kenyon Clutter used to have a nice place in the middle class of America before being murdered in their home. In the book In Cold Blood, Truman depicts the Clutter’s as an ideal and respected family in the rising middle-class of 1950 with descriptions of the family, community, and family hobbie the family; Bonnie(the wife) and four children; Beverly, eveanna, Nancy, and the only son Kenyon. Beverly and Eveanna have grown and moved out of the house in the time that the book takes place, leaving just four people living in the house. From the first part of In Cold Blood, we can conclude that Nancy is an extraverted star in her town who loves socializing and Kenyon was an introverted boy that preferred a more sheltered
The things these men carried were solid with weight and are able to be transported from one place to another by physically moving the object. However, the reader soon discovers it also refers to an emotional weight. As Kaplan states, “Obrien introduces the reader to some of the things, imaginary and concrete, emotional and physical, that the average soldier had to carry through the jungles of Vietnam” (2/8). In the Army there is a saying, “Go to war, or go to jail”. During the time of the Vietnam War, a majority of the men were drafted.
In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, he uses pathos, diction and tone to characterize the killers. He characterizes Dick Hickock as the main character and Perry Smith as a tag-along. Capote mainly shows sympathy towards Perry because of Perry’s messed up past and his mental instability. Capote creates this sympathy through syntax and his elaborate sentence structure with the use of specific punctuation. He also has a very unique writing style with an interesting character development.
The True Weight of War “The Things They Carried,” by Tim O’Brien, brings to light the psychological impact of what soldiers go through during times of war. We learn that the effects of traumatic events weigh heavier on the minds of men than all of the provisions and equipment they shouldered. Wartime truly tests the human body and and mind, to the point where some men return home completely destroyed. Some soldiers have been driven to the point of mentally altering reality in order to survive day to day. An indefinite number of men became numb to the deaths of their comrades, and yet secretly desired to die and bring a conclusion to their misery.
The things that the men carried in chapter one of the book “The Things They Carried” burden the men. In chapter one we can see throughout the chapter that almost everything the soldier's carry is given a weight. For example, “...they all carried steel helmets that weighed 5 pounds. … On their feet, they carried jungle boots --2.1 pounds. (page 5-6)”.
In the book The Things They Carried, people experienced serious mental trauma. Not only did some, if not all, of them come back home with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but they also came back to a nation full of hate and uneasiness towards the veterans. These veterans came back home riddled with guilt and visions flashing before their eyes every time they closed them, people’s worst nightmares put into real life, and yet these veterans are dishonorably discharged, with statements saying that they must not have been good enough for the war. Tim O’Brien, the author of this book, decided to tell us all of the war stories he will never be able to forget, in order to help us picture the unimaginable horrors that all of these veterans went through.