Rhetorical Devices In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

In the first few chapters of the story In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, Capote uses copious descriptive phrases to draw the reader into his story. Capote paints the setting of the novel perfectly with his descriptions. The illustration of the midwest, using imagery, brings the reader to feel as if they actually lived in Kansas in the late 1950’s. Capote’s use of diction creates a suspenseful, contradictory mood. These two rhetorical devices create contradiction, leading the reader in two directions simultaneously. “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call “out there.” Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the countryside, with its hard blue skies and desert-clear