Truman Capote's In Cold Blood: Orb Project

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Adam Pesce Ap Lang
In Cold Blood: ORB Project
HISTORICAL CONTEXT: In Cold Blood, a 1966 book by author Truman Capote, tells the true story of the barbaric 1959 murders of a successful farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, Herbert Clutter, his wife, and two of their four children. When Capote was informed about the murder of these four innocent souls before the two selfish men were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. Nelle Harper Lee, a childhood friend and fellow author, accompanied him and together they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case. As a result, thousands of pages of notes were documented for Capote’s literary works. The murderers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested six weeks after the murders and after the criminals were found, tried, and convicted, Capote organized personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. Capote portrayed Smith as the more sensitive and guilt-ridden of the two killers due to his fascination with Smith. Rumors of a relationship between Smith and Capote still linger to this day. The book was not completed until after Smith and Hickock were executed. Capote ended up spending six years dedicated to his book, which became the greatest crime seller at the time and is almost universally acknowledged as one of the best books of its type ever written.

SYNTAX: Capote uses language choices such as syntax, the arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language, to make his novel effective and give his novel character. One example of syntax technique Capote uses is an observation comparing two sentences from Capote’s novel. "The Garden City representative of New York Life Insurance smiled as he watched Mr. Cl...

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...uld ever see and their eyes are scarred from the terrible events. The people of Kansas have a positive outlook on life and their future, however after these tragedies their views on the security and positivity in the world can no longer be regained. Another theme present in the book is the thought of self-image. Perry and Dick were the original starters of the killing spree. Their motivations were somewhat controlled by the way they perceived themselves, as well as the way they wanted to be perceived. After Perry's psychiatric evaluation the reader learns Perry is “overly sensitive to criticisms that others make of him, and cannot tolerate being made fun of. He is quick to sense slight or insult in things others say” (297). Both Perry and Dick wanted self-recognition causing it to be evident that both characters have serious issues with their elgo and self-esteem.

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