Symbolism In Herb Capote's In Cold Blood
“First, it is a commentary on the American Dream. Herb Clutter has made a wonderful life for himself--his daughter, after all, bakes apple pies. But Herb Clutter's American idyll is abruptly and arbitrarily shattered by two petty criminals. The American dream is fragile, and it only functions if marginal people (ex-cons) are not present.”
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/incoldblood/section10.rhtml
A second theme of In Cold Blood is the randomness of crime. The Clutter family lived in rural Kansas hundreds of miles from a major city, and people of this small community felt a sense of security. The Clutter family murder made national headlines because this crime fit no stereotype. The Clutter family was well loved and respected by the people …show more content…
He had a brain explosion."); (e.g., "... the victims might as well have been killed by lightning.").
In foreshadowing Nancy Clutter's demise, Capote wrote of "... the dress in which she was to be buried" In telling Perry Smith's story, Capote often relied on flashbacks to his childhood to try to understand what may have led to the grisly murders years later: "... a final battle between the parents, a terrifying contest in which horsewhips and scalding water and kerosene lamps were used as weapons, had brought the marriage to a stop." …show more content…
In the novel's most characteristic moment, Kansas Bureau of Investigation Agent Alvin Dewey--one of Capote's favorite "characters"--finally hears the confession of Perry Smith, one of the two former Kansas State Penitentiary cellmates who murdered Herb Clutter, a prosperous farmer, and his family. For seven months, Dewey has worked continuously, staring at grisly photos and following useless leads, in his quest "to learn 'exactly what happened in that house that night.'" But when he finally hears the entire story--told by one of the killers, step by step, shotgun blast by shotgun blast--he is strangely disappointed. The truth, he discovers, is even more disturbing than anything he had imagined. Even though he suddenly knows more about the crime than he, or Capote, would ever have hoped, the "true story" somehow "fails to satisfy his sense of meaningful design" (277). The truth, Dewey discovers, is at once more ordinary and more disturbing than anything he has been able to imagine. Contrary to his expectations, Smith and Richard Hickock did not kill the Clutters out of some aberrant sense of revenge; in fact, until the night of the crime, they had never even met their chosen victims. They
http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/incoldblood/section10.rhtml
A second theme of In Cold Blood is the randomness of crime. The Clutter family lived in rural Kansas hundreds of miles from a major city, and people of this small community felt a sense of security. The Clutter family murder made national headlines because this crime fit no stereotype. The Clutter family was well loved and respected by the people …show more content…
He had a brain explosion."); (e.g., "... the victims might as well have been killed by lightning.").
In foreshadowing Nancy Clutter's demise, Capote wrote of "... the dress in which she was to be buried" In telling Perry Smith's story, Capote often relied on flashbacks to his childhood to try to understand what may have led to the grisly murders years later: "... a final battle between the parents, a terrifying contest in which horsewhips and scalding water and kerosene lamps were used as weapons, had brought the marriage to a stop." …show more content…
In the novel's most characteristic moment, Kansas Bureau of Investigation Agent Alvin Dewey--one of Capote's favorite "characters"--finally hears the confession of Perry Smith, one of the two former Kansas State Penitentiary cellmates who murdered Herb Clutter, a prosperous farmer, and his family. For seven months, Dewey has worked continuously, staring at grisly photos and following useless leads, in his quest "to learn 'exactly what happened in that house that night.'" But when he finally hears the entire story--told by one of the killers, step by step, shotgun blast by shotgun blast--he is strangely disappointed. The truth, he discovers, is even more disturbing than anything he had imagined. Even though he suddenly knows more about the crime than he, or Capote, would ever have hoped, the "true story" somehow "fails to satisfy his sense of meaningful design" (277). The truth, Dewey discovers, is at once more ordinary and more disturbing than anything he has been able to imagine. Contrary to his expectations, Smith and Richard Hickock did not kill the Clutters out of some aberrant sense of revenge; in fact, until the night of the crime, they had never even met their chosen victims. They