In Cold Blood: A Review
Upon arriving in Holcomb, a small congregation of buildings on the
high wheat plains of western Kansas, Perry and Dick, two men recently
paroled for petty crimes, left almost no evidence behind except for a
bloody footprint and a radio they stole from the Clutter house. In the
investigative nonfiction murder story "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote, the
story of Perry and Dick and the night of November 15, 1959 is relived.
This fast-paced and straightforward documentary talks about the nature of
American violence, and details the motiveless murder of four members of the
Clutter family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial, and
execution of the killers, but not before the ...
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these things had actually happened, and they were not simply a
fictional story produced by some author's overactive imagination. However,
it becomes apparent it wasn't just the horrific story of these murders that
is troubling, but the aspect of how Capote tells the story that makes
reading it uneasy.
Unlike many other murder stories, Capote not only discusses the
criminals and their role in the crime, but their childhoods, their lives
right before the crime, and their lives after the conviction until the
executions. This may be because he was able to establish such rapport with
these two men through countless hours of interviews over many years. The
reader of "In Cold Blood" is given the cold, hard facts about the murderers,
and the effect of their previous lives on their actions and thoughts
regarding the matter. This draws the reader closer to the men than they
would, perhaps, like to be. Capote talks about the lives of both killers
previous to the murders in ...
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tendencies to develop in Perry from an early
onset. Describing a fight with his father, Perry says, "he carried
on like that 'till I couldn't stand it. My hands got hold of his throat.
My hands--but I couldn't control them. They wanted to choke him to death"
(136). Dick Hickock, on the other hand, may have had a decent childhood;
however, his anger manifested itself in bad relationships with women. Dick
was forced to separate from his first wife Carol, whom he truly loved, in
order to "do the right thing by another young lady, the mother of his
youngest child" (131). Dick despised his second wife and never recovered
fully from the pain of having to leave his first wife. ...
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In Cold Blood: A Review. (2008, May 8). Retrieved April 26, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/In-Cold-Blood-A-Review/83295
"In Cold Blood: A Review." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 8 May. 2008. Web. 26 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/In-Cold-Blood-A-Review/83295>
"In Cold Blood: A Review." Essayworld.com. May 8, 2008. Accessed April 26, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/In-Cold-Blood-A-Review/83295.
"In Cold Blood: A Review." Essayworld.com. May 8, 2008. Accessed April 26, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/In-Cold-Blood-A-Review/83295.
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