Preview

Rhetorical Devices Used In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
341 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Rhetorical Devices Used In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood
Truman Capote, renowned author of numerous classic novels, more notably, books such as Summer Crossing, The Grass Harp, The Complete Stories of Truman Capote, and In Cold Blood. However, one book from this selection stands out from the rest, it just so happens to be one of Truman Capote’s best selling books as well, In Cold Blood. What makes In Cold Blood significant from the rest is that, unlike the others, this book is able to transport the reader to a dimension of pure concentrated realism, wonderment, and imagination. This is not to say that the rest of the books within the selection are unable to achieve a similar goal, but rather to stress the point that the rhetorical devices used within In Cold Blood aid in the creation of the aforementioned

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Truman Capote demonstrated in his novel “In Cold Blood” there was a pattern of planning and emotions to commit their crimes. The book took six years to write, and took place when the author seen a huge article in the New York Times about an unsolved multiple murder of a wheat farmer and his family in Holcomb, Kansas. Truman went straight to Holcomb to the scene of the crime. It was six years later that the killers were executed by being hung on the very same day, that Truman Capote finished his nonfiction novel “In Cold Blood”. The novel sold out instantly and became one of the most talked about books of its time. An instant classic, In Cold Blood brought Capote millions of dollars and fame unparalleled by nearly by nearly any other literary author…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Truman Capote kicked his book off by describing a lonesome yet plentiful area called Holcomb, Kansas. He used an assortment of imagery to describe the wilting bank, the lively fields of wheat and the well taken care of school. In Cold Blood the author wants to portray an old, quiet, humdrum town where the most interesting thing that happens is the school activities. He used imagery and specific tone to explain his purpose which was to illustrate how dreary the town seemed to be.…

    • 373 Words
    • 2 Pages
    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

    Speaker: In Cold Blood is written mostly from a third person perspective, even though it switches to a first person narrative occasionally. The author, Truman Capote had experiences of an unsettled family life, which made him more empathetic toward Perry. At the same time, he perfectly depicts what a bloody and horrid murder it was by delving into the characters’ mind and portraying their emotions flawlessly.…

    • 270 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood to commemorate the Clutter family as honorable people; beginning by describing the family’s personality, he paints a picture in which the Clutter family is the protagonist. Although Capote is sometimes empathetic towards Dick and Perry, and it seems his true loyalties are questionable, he wouldn’t have written the book if he hadn’t felt a pull to memorialize the family. One of the most dreadful feelings for an author would be for their work to be disregarded or simply make no impact on the reader. Capote’s worst fear is for the Clutter murder to be “‘just one of many such cases people have read about and forgotten’” (Capote 272) because Capote personally knew so many affected by the murder, including the murderers…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “More markings, self-designed and self executed, ornamented his arms and torso: the head of a dragon with a human skull between its open jaws; bosomy nudes; a gremlin brandishing a pitchfork; the word PEACE accompanied by a cross radiating, in the form of crude strokes, rays of holy light; and two sentimental concoctions—one a bouquet of flowers dedicated to Mother-Dad, the other the celebrated the romance of Dick and Carol, the girl whom he had married when he was nineteen, and from who he had separated six years later in order to ‘do the right thing’ by another young lady, the mother of his youngest child” (31).…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Quiet enough to hear the birds chirp all day. Small enough to know every neighbor around. Rural enough to see every star in the midnight sky. Boring enough to get no attention from the outside world. This portrays the town of Holcomb in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood. This town consists of run down buildings and citizens who understand the importance of education. To help tell his story, Capote uses alliteration, imagery and his own selection of detail to bring his story to life.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Truman Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood, he follows the story of two young delinquents who robbed and viciously murdered the highly respected Clutter family in the small town, and in the fictional novel by Ellen Hopkins, Identical, readers journey through teenage Kaeleigh that is sexually abused by the alcoholic father and neglected by an absent politician mother. Both authors shed light on the struggle of pursuing daily existence. Friedrich Nietzsche’s quote, “There is a certain right by which we may deprive a man of life, but none by which we may deprive him of death; this is mere cruelty.” further justifies the fact that people should be allowed to take control of their lives if they aren’t happy.…

    • 718 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Cold Blood tells the story of the murder of the Clutter family and its following case involving Dick and Perry. The author, Truman Capote, indirectly takes a stance against capital punishment. Throughout the story Capote sways his bias toward Perry, his emotion towards him alludes to the fact that he does not agree with the death penalty with an unjust and unfair trial. Capote shows this by pointing out the questionable decisions of the judge. During the trial, the judge made a ruling on not to have the psychiatrist speak on Dick and Perry's mental health because “Medical Doctors in general practice. That's all the law requires” (267). This shows the trial is unfair because the judge knew that if the psychiatrist were to speak at the trial,…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The speaker of "In Cold Blood" is Truman capote, the author of the novel. Truman Capote was a screenwriter, novelist, playwright, and actor. He was very successful in all his literary endeavors but was considered an expert in writing novels. In the novel he is the omniscient narrator and this novel is an example of his journalistic writing.…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    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

    1) In Cold Blood is a non-fiction novel, but how is it more like journalism than an ordinary work of fiction?…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A scrawl of a pencil ignited the flame of a shotgun and exploded the career of the American author, Truman Capote. His blood rushed with thrill, for he was the creator of a new genre, the nonfiction novel. He rivets readers with his uniquely-detailed character growth and a shocking murder plot of the Clutter family; yet, Capote's journalistic character in In Cold Blood hold untrue. Despite condensing time and ignoring small details, the extent of a nonfiction novelist's purpose is to always remain truthful because the audience should not doubt one’s writing and characters should hold true to the people they were based-on.…

    • 720 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Truman Capote's Analysis

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages

    In the beginning, Mrs Miller had a normal bland schedule with not much emotion put into anything. Her activities were the same and she “rarely journeyed farther than the corner store”(Capote 1). Because her schedule was pretty much the same everyday, there was no reason to travel farther than her comfort zone. Plus she had to care for her canary, the only other living creature residing with her. Otherwise, she cleaned her apartment and cooked the meals by herself. She was like everyone else; did normal everyday stuff, but never put any thought or care into her tasks. She just did them, because they needed to be done. It was almost like she was a robot; programmed to do work and not put much attention towards it: “Her activities were seldom…

    • 815 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Cold Blood Theme

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In Cold Blood is crafted like a modern-day tragedy, on the scale of one of the Greek dramas from classical antiquity, and deals with many of the same universal themes: murder, vengeance, and the pursuit of justice. This, for Capote, was the power of his new literary genre, the nonfiction novel: to take events from the contemporary world and elevate them to epic storytelling proportions, enabling them to transcend their specific historical moment and reflect on broader truths about humanity. Capote assembles the disparate facts and perspectives about the Clutter case into a narrative that speaks profoundly on the nature of human life and death, criminality, American society and the pursuit of individual happiness -- reinventing in the process many of our modern-day forms of mythology (for example, the myth of the American dream).…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays