Preview

Murders In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
767 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Murders In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
In Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood, he describes the events of an actual murder that happened in Holcomb Kansas. The Clutter family of four, were savagely murdered in their own home with shotguns during the night. The book follows the murders Dick and Perry through events that follow the murders. The two murders have many similarities, but are also very different. Their background, affections, and mental awareness. Perry and Dicks childhoods couldn’t compare to each other they were so different. Out of the two characters, Perry’s background takes up a few pages in the book by itself. First the book states that Perry’s parents had gotten divorced when he was little. Then, it tells us he was beaten as a child. His father ends up saving him from the people that were beating him. "I was always thinking about Dad, hoping he could come take me away, and I remember, like as second ago, the time I saw him again. Standing in the schoolyard” (Capote pg 82). However, Perry’s life didn’t get better after his dad “saved” him. He only was able to acquire an elementary education. Him and his father traveled constantly never staying in one place too long. Later in the book Perry exclaims that almost all of his family besides one person was murdered, committed suicide, or has passed away. The only one that is still alive is his sister, and she …show more content…
including their background, affections, and mental awareness. In the end Perry is the one that the readers should understand, and feel more sorrow for. Throughout the book it tells more about Perry and his life, and he did try to take all the blame for the murders in Kansas. He was trying to save Dick’s parents from any grief in knowing that their son had killed somebody. In the end the truth comes out that Perry didn’t murder everyone. Dick had helped murder the Clutter family that night in kansas. Both Perry and Dick were given the same sentence,

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The townspeople’s reaction to the news of the killings is one of “amazement, shading into dismay; a shallow horror sensation that cold springs of personal fear swiftly deepened” (70). The Clutters’ demise has larger significance for this sheltered little part of western Kansas: it amounts to the infiltration of an “other” – a “poor, rootless, misbegotten” other – into their peaceable and prosperous little universe. The Clutter killings symbolize a collision of the two sides of America: the prosperous, self-assured “haves” with the disappointed and destitute “have-nots.” The ideology of the American dream is forced to confront those it has left behind. The town of Holcomb, following the initial trauma of the grim discovery, begins to confront the longer-term implications of the murders: “This hitherto peaceful congregation of neighbors and old friends had suddenly to endure the unique experience of distrusting each other” (88). That the town of Holcomb has experienced a loss of innocence is a point that Capote continues to explore in this section. Disillusioned by the crime, the residents are fraught with feelings of fear and mistrust, and many set off to settle elsewhere, hoping to regain their sense of security and well-being.…

    • 917 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    On the first day of the trial, a psychologist is called in and brings light to Perry’s traumatic life events. The following day, witnesses are brought to the stand, the last being the most important- Alvin Dewey, who gives the public the first actual description of what occurred that night. Throughout the week, the trial continues and eventually the psychologist diagnoses Perry as possibly being a paranoid schizophrenic. Perry and Dick are sentenced to death, and after a two-year postponement, on April 15th, 1965, they meet their fate. Dick conveys no resentment towards the State; Perry feels that the death penalty is unwarranted. After five years, the case has finally come to an end, a pale vindication for the Clutter…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood documents the quadruple homicide of Herbert Clutter and his family in Holcomb, Kansas. It is not a true memoir, as Capote was not a part of the events that took place; he traveled to Kansas immediately following the murders to write about the ensuing investigation and fill in the blanks about the actual goings-on in Holcomb, 1959. His writing is a true account of the murder from the beginning; not only was he in Holcomb during the investigation, he spoke directly with the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, Finney County citizens, lawyers involved in the case, and people directly involved in the crime. His narrative is vivid, emotional, and most of all, profound. His contention with crime and violence is apparent through his powerful account of the murder and the investigation.…

    • 763 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The tone at the end of the book, displays Dewey’s confused emotions at not feeling “a sense of climax” (pg. 341) at Dick and Perry’s death. Instead Dewey felt more of a climax, “leaving behind… the…

    • 240 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” Dick and Perry are attempting to hitchhike to Nebraska but, less innocently, have made plans to murder the friendly soul who decides to help them out. Mr. Bell went out of his way to help these two strangers but even his sincere compassion didn’t deter Perry and his unusual readiness to strike.…

    • 340 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    At the start of the second big chapter, Herbert Clutter’s close friends come to clean up the crime scene because it is their “Christian duty”. The murders of this family have an incredibly huge impact on the town of Holcomb. The town is seen as a quiet place where everyone is friendly, and this murder caused a great deal of horror for the people. As said from the previous chapter, Nancy’s boyfriend is the initial suspect but eventually is ruled out because there was no actual motive for him to commit the crimes. It is said that Dick and Perry go off to Mexico to steer clear of the police, yet are breaking more laws by “hanging paper”. Capote finally reveals more of a backstory on the partners in crime, literally. The novel describes Perry’s troubled past with family issues, abuse, abandonment, suicide, and crime. Perry is a dreamer, whereas his friend Dick is realistic. Perry tells Dick of a reoccurring dream he has (which is obviously relevant for some reason) that includes a tree of diamonds.…

    • 363 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This quote shows how Perry describes his motivation to kill the Clutters. It begins with a rivalrous confrontation with Dick over whether Dick will go through with his promise to “blast hair all over the walls”; this is quickly eclipsed by Perry’s feelings of shame and self-loathing, while reflecting on the indignity of the botched robbery and by association, the indignity of his life as a criminal. He is hardly conscious of slitting Herb Clutter’s throat; the murder comes as a kind of automatic response to the memory of other frustrations and insults he has endured, of which the Clutter household is symbolic.…

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Meanwhile, Dewey and Duntz question Perry. They repeat the process that they used with Dick on Perry. Perry was very upset and was not allowed to see Dick. The next day, Dick breaks he tells the investigators that it was Perry who killed the Clutter family and that he was unable to stop him from killing them. Perry does not confess until Dewey tells him the story about him killing a man. Perry knows that is something that only Dick would know, it proves that Dick has confessed. So he gives a full confession. Dick had thought that the Clutter had a large safe, so they went to rob them. They first went to Mr. Clutter room to wake him up and threaten him to show them where the safe is. When they didn't find it, Perry wanted to leave, but Dick…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In section three the secondary character that stuck out to me the most is Mr. Bell whom Perry and Dick meet when they try hitchhiking. He stands out in my mind because we are given a glimpse at his life, and in the objective tone of Capote, we then learn of Dick & Perry’s intention to rob him of his life. He is only in the novel very briefly but I feel that because he helps accentuate Dick & Perry’s sense of desperation and the attitude of “do anything to survive”, that he is a very well written secondary character.…

    • 2433 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dick has gone through life showing no compassion to anyone besides himself, taking everything for granted. With the use of amplification Capote is able to represent how Dick just viewed Perry as an easily-manipulable piece in his little game never showing true fondness towards him as Perry believed he did, thinking they were together in the long run: “Goodbye, Perry. Dick was sick of him--his harmonica, his aches and ills, his superstitions,…

    • 368 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Truman Capote wrote the book in brief sections, setting the scene and then putting a break in the narrative, the way the book is structured with several plotlines happening at the same time it keeps the reader on edge, giving it a classic crime-genre technique to always keep the reader in suspense. On top of this he pays close attention to the setting around the dialogue, producing powerful imagery for the reader. The dialogue is factual, which reduces Capotes’ personal involvement, and with the descriptive, tense paragraphs, to heighten suspense. In the book we see two of the main characters, Dick and Perry, their interests and family background which we can see Capotes’ journalism through his reporting. In an interview for the New York Times in 1966, Capote said, "It seemed to me that journalism, reportage, could be forced to yield a serious new art form: the 'nonfiction novel,' as I thought of it ... Journalism is the most underestimated, the least explored of literary mediums,"…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Clutter’s death fades as time disperses the clouds of darkness, revealing winds of prosperity. Within the frigid pages of In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, death haunts the living as time sways through the air. A reunion between Dewey and Susan Kidwell, portrays the endless chain of life and death, as the waves of turmoil of the Clutter family’s death to the execution the murderers. Fields of wheat wave to the dead and the blue sky protecting a bright future ahead. Truman Capote displays the cycle of life and death and the cleansing of the curse left behind, after the murder of the Clutters.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Cold Blood

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In the book, “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote he describes to us all the events that took place before, during, and after a murder that happened in Holcomb, Kansas. Mr. Clutter, who was the owner of River Valley Farm and husband to Bonnie Clutter, and the father of four children, two whom had survived due to them not living at the Clutter residence anymore. The fatal event of the family hit the whole town hard which led one man, detective Alvin Dewey, determined to find and take whoever did such actions to trial to be sentenced.…

    • 1327 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Truman Capote’s non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood (1963), suggests that the death penalty should only be used as a last resort. Capote supports this by first introducing the victims of the crime being depicted, as well as the culprits of said crime; he then tells of the search and apprehension of the criminals, and he finally discloses the details of the mystery and visualizes the disturbing nature of the death penalty. His purpose is to leave the reader questioning the morality of the complex issues the death penalty raises. Capote’s intended audience is that of American adults, for, they control the fate of America’s use of the death penalty for crimes.…

    • 415 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cold Blood

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the non-fiction novel In Cold Blood, Truman Capote (1965) gives his own narrative of the Holcomb tragedy in which a family of four living out on a secluded farm were slaughtered with a shotgun by the collaboration of two individuals for a seemingly few dollars. In this novel, Capote gives a thorough character description of the two murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, as he recreates their experience (much as he sees it as it would be from their eyes). He gives accounts preceding the event, through it, and eventually into their trial and execution. From the descriptions Capote provides, a psychological analysis of the mental states of Hickock and Smith can be asserted. Richard Hickock can be seen as possessing significant traits of psychopathy, while his partner Perry Smith is seen with traits similar to that of a life-course persistent offender. Through the described personality characteristics and brief histories of Hickock and Smith, this essay will address this assertion with the two in question as individuals themselves, within their relationship to each other, and also as other characters see and analyze their psychological well being.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays