In Cold Blood

In November 15, 1959, Richard "Dick" Eugene Hickock and Perry Edward Smith were motivated to kill four members of a highly well- respected family for a safe that supposedly contained thousand dollars. The gruesome murders of the Clutters occurred on an isolated village located in southern west of Kansas, which provoked members of the community to begin to suspect whether someone in Holcomb committed such action since the crime appeared to be senseless. Truman Capote, author of In Cold Blood, explains how the people in the village were tormented and devastated because of the murders that took place. Capote emphasizes the result the murders had on Holcomb by using dashes to describe the scene and setting.

In Holcomb, a village located in the southern west of Kansas, transformed into a well-known community after the gruesome murders of the Clutters. “Until one morning in mid-November of 1959, few Americans, in fact, few Kansans-had ever heard of Holcomb”(5). The dash makes a sudden pause emphasizing the effect the murders of the Clutters had on the village by describing the setting. In that quote, Capote uses the dash to break the thought since, at the beginning, Capote clarifies that few people knew where Holcomb was located and then interrupts his own thought by using the dash to clarify that few Kansans ever heard of Holcomb. Therefore, by using the dashes, the setting is implied and described as an isolated lonely place, in which everyone knew each other, until “mid-November of 1959” when the murders occurred. “Since the announcement of Hickock’s confession on Sunday evening, newsmen of every style had assembled in Garden City: representatives of the major wire services, photographers, newsreel and television cameramen, reporters...

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...as granted as Perry and Dick were hanged for their horrifying actions against the Clutters. Throughout the story, Capote’s use of dashes make the effect that the murders had on Holcomb stand more. In order to do so, he describes the setting, which is implied by the meaning of the dashes. Capote describes the feelings of the villagers and describes how Holcomb changed after the incident. According to Lemony Snicket, “ We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know. It is like walking up the stairs to your bedroom in the dark, and thinking there is one more stair than there is. Your foot falls down, through the air, and there is a sickly moment of dark surprise as you try and readjust the way you thought of things”.