In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis Essay The cunning nonfiction novel ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote is a whirl of emotions. He manipulates the reader into feeling pathos for the killers, because he wants you to feel guilty. Capote is trying to make a point that the Criminal Justice System is flawed, and that the death penalty was unfair and unjustly. In pages 107-109, Dick and Perry’s relationship is starting to show flaws. Perry is starting to feel guilty, and Dick is starting to fear him. In Cold Blood will leave the reader in pain and guilt by the way that Capote makes you feel Pathos for Perry’s bad childhood and anger for Dick’s cold, cold heart. The reader is drawn into Dick and Perry’s second day of Mexico as the two have …show more content…
A dusty road winding into and out of a white and dusty village.” And while Dick and Perry are enjoying their picnic, the two’s relationship is beginning to spiral downhill. Perry feels as if there must be something wrong with them, while Dick is feeling as sane as can be. In the beginning, Capote makes the reader stop and think about the scenery. The way Capote says it makes the reader visualize mountains, hawks that are wheeling in the white sky. (Which we can imagine as maybe it's cloudy.) The roads of Mexico are dusty, which can mean that it’s a dirt road. The dusty village could also make you think the foundation of the village is dirt. Although Capote wants to drive pathos for both Perry and Dick into our skulls, most of the readers feel more drawn to Perry. As I state in my thesis, Capote is trying to make us feel pathos for the killers to make us understand why the Justice System is so flawed; and how these killers were mentally ill, but failed by the Justice System. And that the Justice System could’ve probably rehabilitated them instead of executing them. Furthering my thesis, the death penalty is also unjustly and unfair to these mentally illed criminals. Despite everything Perry has done, being the one out of …show more content…
Capote’s way of making the reader question the criminal justice system and the death penalty is bizarre. Capote makes us feel pathos for Perry Smith and builds tension and uniquely uses imagery and detailed exploration of the characters to make us understand. It’s like we’re overseers and we experience what Dick and Perry’s journey was like on the run. To feel what they felt, to understand why they were treated so poorly and why they shouldn’t have been hung. That maybe deep down there was a chance these two could have been redeemed as human beings again and that they overuse the death penalty instead of trying to help the criminals reform
Although, Dick and Perry had no problem killing the Clutters their intent was just to rob them. Originally, Dick and Perry had planned to rob them because they were the richest family in Holcomb, Kansas. If they would have gone to the Clutters and only robbed them, there wouldn’t be a book about this case. Since Holcomb is such a small city, this murder case was very important to them and now so many others. “I didn’t want to harm the man.
The Book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a captivating nonfiction novel retelling of the Clutter family murder. This book is split into four parts with parallel narratives which share an array of perspectives such as, Perry Smith and Dick Hickhock, the two murderers. The Author Truman Capote uses the characterization of Perry to force the audience to empathize with him to ultimately convey that the perception of evil is subjective. Perry is described as an arrogant man who was overly concerned with his looks, this is due to the fact of his motorcycle accident, his abuse through his childhood, and/or his time in prison.
In Cold Blood is Capote’s masterpiece, his realistic and detailed writing allows readers to dive into the story and capture every character’s
Perry’s hardships play an extensive role in creating conflict within the audience about the death penalty, which is amplified by Capote’s use of symbolism to portray Perry as vulnerable and encourage even more
While most would focus on the victims of the case, Capote focuses on the background of the killers and their reasoning behind committing crimes. Sympathy was demonstrated, specifically for Perry, when arrested. Capote, “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 and then another'' (Capote 246). While many would feel Dick and Perry deserved to die, Capote has an unpopular perspective by showing sympathy for the killers based on their past. Capote creates a sympathetic tone towards Perry and creates disputable topics about the flawed justice system.
The book also includes several interludes, which provide additional context and background information. For example, one interlude focuses on the Kansas City Star newspaper and its coverage of the case, while another discusses the evolution of the American criminal justice system. Overall, the structure of In Cold Blood is designed to provide a comprehensive and engaging account of the events surrounding the murder of the Clutter family. It was initially intended for a general audience of readers interested in true crime stories. The book's author, Truman Capote, was a well-known and highly respected writer, so it likely also appealed to fans of his work.
Although both Perry and Dick had committed terrible crimes, Capote focuses instead on emotionally humanising Perry, and to a lesser extent Dick; therefore Capote claims that immoral acts alone do not make a person inherently evil. Capote reveals how deeply emotional, and how quickly Perry can get emotionally attached to someone with an analogy: “But he was afraid to leave Dick; merely to consider it made him “sort of sick,” as though he were trying to “jump off a train going ninety-nine miles an hour. ””(124) The juxtaposition between Perry as a murderer and Perry as child who is controlled by his emotions is a recurring idea in the second part of In Cold Blood, and it exemplifies Capote’s current purpose of humanising Perry. Capote’s main
In Cold Blood: Style Analysis Essay In the book “In Cold Blood”, by Truman Capote, the discomfort and relief tones reflect the mood of Dick and Perry as they leave Kansas City to Mexico. The men flee because they have committed a crime. Feeling uncomfortable by the crowd-ness of people and their belongings in a single car with them, but as they cross the border they feel relief.
Capote portrays only one of these two seemingly distinct characters (Perry) in a way that the reader feels the need to relate to and even sympathize with him. One can be taken aback by such an attachment to a murderer. This is not surprising as the author uses his compassionate diction to manipulate the reader’s emotions with a use of pathos, the appeal to emotions. At one point Capote goes as far as to write that “Smith’s life had been no bed of roses,” (Capote 245) attempting to have the readers relate to Perry. On the other hand, Capote has Dick say this about himself: “Deal me out, baby, I’m a normal” (Capote 116).
In Cold Blood, written by Truman Capote in 1966 tells the story of the murder of a prominent family in 60’s Kansas. Capote traveled to the small town of Holcomb, and befriended many of the townsfolk and the detectives involved in the trial to tell the story of a violent event that shaped this community for the decade until the eventual conviction and execution of the killers. Because of information being told, Capote makes the choice of writing his novel as if it were a news report. This journalistic structure and word choice helps to establish the serious and dark tone of the novel.
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.
Perry’s erratic spontaneous outbursts is what caused him to go through with the murders and slit Mr. Clutter’s throat which put him on the killing frenzy that ended the rest of the Clutters lives. Capote highlights Perry’s sociopathic tendencies by comparing them to that of Dicks Psychopathic tendencies which exemplifies how when put together they are at each others fault for the
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
Truman Capote uses variety of language devices such as diction, similes and symbolism to vividly develop Perry Smith in his novel In Cold Blood and reveal aspects of the murder. Perry Smith is a sensitive, somewhat frightening and psychologically unstable character, but then again
The novel, In Cold Blood, is an anomaly in the literary paradigm. The author, Truman Capote, designed his novel in a way that made it unique when compared to others. His fundamental purpose was to present the problem of American violence and the fragility of the American Dream and how it can be so easily shattered. In order to portray his purpose, he used many rhetorical devices including syntax, diction, tone, ethos, logos and pathos. These devices allowed Capote’s novel to be different from the spectrum of other non-fiction novels and to support his purpose.