In Cold Blood Character Analysis Essay

Although Truman Capote plans to give a detailed explanation of the Clutter family murders, he must begin with what the town is like and what kind of lives the people live; so, he must explain how community members are changed after the something so tragic sticks an innocent town. Because Capote is trying to create a bland and dry view of Holcomb, he highlights the loneliness of the town. He describes Holcomb as, “The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high heel boots with pointed toes. The land is flat and the views are awesomely extensive..” (Capote 3). Using words such as “barbed” and “flat” creates a view if a town that is a little bit rugged around the edges, one that is boring and never noticed. As Capote writes he describes the community of Holcomb and friendliness of the farmers and ranchers who always have their boots on and are ready for a hard day's work. The stereotypical cowboy, is are hardworking and always lends a hand, which represents the characteristics of a hard working town. Gaining the knowledge of the community members
and how they live their lives is crucial to understand why a murder like the Clutter family is so unusual in the town of Holcomb. In the beginning of the text Capote uses an allusion which like imagery gives a deeper understanding to what is happening in the text. Capote discusses how the town is, “The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them.” (Capote 3). Capote uses the words “greek temples” and “gracefully” to describe yet another reason Holcomb is a quiet town. He alludes to greek temples which sustained the greek empire, connecting that Holcomb is sustained by their farm community. Capote also uses amplification which builds up the emotions of a character.
As Capote describes the emotions of the town he explains the feelings of, “‘Wilma Kidwell was forced to control her self in order to control her daughter, for Susan, puffy-eyed, sickened by spasms of nausea, argued inconsolably insisted that she must go, must run the 3 miles to the Rupp farm ’”(Capote 70). Capote could have ended the phrase with “was forced to control herself in order to control her daughter” but he builds the character of Susan Kidwell by adding how she is looking and feeling. How Susan is feeling is also important understand the large effects that the death of the Clutters have on just one person. Though Capote only describes into detail how Susan is feeling you can imagine how others that were close to the Clutters feel
also. Although Truman Capote plans to give a detailed explanation of the Clutter family murders, he must begin with what the town is like and what kind of lives the people live; So, he must describe how community members live prior to the immorality and how different they life after. Adding that in the text it is important that Capote used such devices to create a better understanding for the readers which allows them to feel the emotions of the characters.