Caroline Oswalt
08/20/12
3rd
“In Cold Blood” Essay Prompt #1
The novel “In Clod Blood” is written in third person omniscient, so Capote
had inside knowledge on everything that happened. He tells facts about the story,
never harsh tones or opinionated statements about murder or Dick and Perry. I
think Capote did a fantastic job of intertwining non-judgmental tone with a
sympathetic tone he uses to narrate during the interviews of the citizens who were
part of the murder of Garden City.
The people interviewed all had opinions on the Clutter family most of them
showing great appreciation and love towards the Clutter family. Capote shows
sympathy towards the murder without judging or showing hatred towards the
Clutter family or Dick and Perry. The rest of the town judges whether or not they are
safe. Also among all of the Garden City Citizens, they start to question each other as
if their own neighbor committed the murderous crime of the Clutter family. Herb
Clutter, Bonnie Clutter, Nancy Clutter, and Kenyon Clutter all killed because of a
rumor about Herb Clutter’s “safe of ten thousand dollars”. Capote continues to not
judge Dick or Perry after or before the murder yet his sympathy continues on
throughout the novel.
The sympathy shown for the Clutter family was shown by facts presented by
Capote in the novel such as, “No one ever said anything bad about them,” and since
they were known as such a “picture perfect” family that the town feared if
something bad happened to the Clutter family then they were all doomed. In
relation to sympathy shown for the Clutter’s, Capote also shows sympathy for Dick
and Perry’s bad childhood? Back grounds. Both dick and Perry had mothers who
were alcoholics and harsh fathers. Perry’s father was abusive and Dick’s would not
let him go to college even with multiple scholarships. Since the story was told from
opposite perspectives, the Clutter family and Dick and Perry, it allows not only the
narrator to show sympathy through his tone, but for the reader to see it from both
sides of the story and understand Dick and Perry’s ulterior motive behind the killing
of the Clutter family.
I think that having a non-judgmental tone and having a sympathetic tone also
for the characters in “In Cold Blood” is possible and has been achieved by Truman
Capote.