Point Of View In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Readers feel a sense of sorrow for Alvin Dewey when Capote describes his late nights working the case, not coming home to his wife, or immediately going to bed as soon as he got home. Capote creates sympathy for Dewey by acknowledging a phone call conversation between Dewey and his wife: “...Dewey interrupted the consultation to telephone his wife, Marie, at their home, and warn her that he wouldn’t be home for dinner. She said, “Yes. All Right, Alvin,” but he noticed in her tone an uncharacteristic anxiety (Capote 87).” Truman Capote provides the phone call conversation between Alvin Dewey and his wife, Marie, to draw the reader’s attention to how many late nights he stayed at the office, trying to crack down on any information that would help solve the case.

• Tone – Throughout this novel, Capote’s tone towards the case stayed objective yet compassionate. It seemed as if he wanted to capture every single moment of each character’s points of view. “Know what I think?” said Perry. “I think there must be something wrong with us. To do what we did.”

Dick and Perry come from completely different backgrounds and Capote leaves the reader wondering if their childhood experiences had an effect on their decisions as adults. Dick and Perry had no intentions of killing in the beginning however, they are left running from the police with no plan

If needed, they decide that they will kill any witnesses, and Perry begins to have second thoughts. This leads to Dick following through the plans to prove his masculinity. Throughout the novel, I have noticed a competitive relationship they share as they both try to prove themselves to each other. The significance of this quote tells the readers the reason why the Clutters were murdered. During their attempt of finding the safe, they were encountered by many different problems which led to frustration and tension between the pair.

However, the two murderers never took the time to find out more about the Clutter family. Once they realized there was no fortune, Dick did not mind. Dick’s motive for remaining inside the Clutter home was he knew there was a young girl living in the house. His motive was to rape the young girl, Nancy. Nonetheless, the other murderer, Perry Smith, had no motive for killing the Clutter family after realizing there was no fortune.

Dick uses the hero’s journey structure to illustrate the theme that individual liberty is more important than collective security by demonstrating how the main character goes through the Call Of Adventure stage. Anderton is showing Witwer the function of precrime when the machine prints him as a future murder. In the text, it says “On the card was his name. Line one — an already accused future murderer! According to the code punches, Precrime Commissioner John A. Anderton was going to kill a man — within the next week.”

That specific phrasing can make someone’s skin crawl, and sounds like something one would find in a coroner’s report rather than a novel. Later, Capote goes on to talk about what happened to the townsfolk after, and how it was almost

Capotes creates sympathy for Detective Dewey by allowing the reader to think about what it would be like to have family member who is extremely involved in work about the

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

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

While Dick’s attempt to profit from Perry originates from a lie that Perry creates in order to gain Dick’s respect, the language that Capote uses to illustrate Dick’s exploitation does not leave room for excuses or sympathy. The tone indicates Dick has malicious intention in befriending Perry, which gives the readers a cynical impression of him. Furthermore, Dick is seen to be disregarding of the gravity of his crimes, especially as he replies to Perry’s comment, “I think there must be something wrong with us" (Capote 114) to commit the murder like they did, in which Dick replies, “Deal me out, baby, I'm a normal,” and continues to entertain the thought, “ But Perry—there

Dick did not have any second thoughts about the murder. He had firmly wanted to walk-in and kill the Clutter family despite their innocence. Dick viewed the Clutters’ as an opportunity that was going to make him rich. There was not any

From the beginning, Dick had a detailed plan of how they would carry out the murders, and he made sure that Perry was on board with his ideas. The scary part of all of this is that Dick considered himself normal, by saying, “I’m a normal” (Capote 108). In the book, it is clear that Dick was the one in control, and Perry is merely following his lead. For example, when they first discussed the robbery, Dick said, "If it's going to be done, it's got to be done right. No slip-ups...

The author Truman Capote’s tones in “In Cold Blood” are earnest and malicious. The thesis of the story is that the killers, Dick and Perry did not care about the Clutters. They did their job, and now they do not seem to be worried, Perry just a little bit AND Mr. Helm of course, but other than that Dick does not care about what they did. The imagery of the story is that it is confusing and harsh. Dick says, “Jesus, I’ve got the bastard kind.”

[He said] it [didn’t] bother Perry a bit” (Capote 255). Dick is honestly trying to make Perry look very guilty instead of him. Even though Perry killed all four of the Clutters, Capote was still against the death penalty for Perry. Capote was also biased throughout the story because of his “relationship” with Perry. An example of Capote’s bias is when he wrote that “Dewey, a believer in capital punishment, its purported deterrent effects, and its justice, witnessed the hangings” but he could not watch Perry’s hanging.