Literary Techniques In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood tells the true-to-life, fact-based story of the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. The book recounts the brutal murder of the Clutter family, consisting of Mr. and Mrs. Clutter and their two teenage children, Kenyon and Nancy and the events subsequently following this tragedy. The novel covers any specific incidence or occurring that lead the killers, Perry Smith and Dick Hickok, to this savagely violent murder. The family was living a standard, conventional life in their home in Holcomb, Kansas, but despite their subtle content, in the November of 1959, they were brutally killed, with no obvious motive. The family was discovered bound and shot to death, with only small, insignificant items missing from
Capote’s thorough research and inclusion of miniscule details and descriptions about this actual occurrence allows the reader to be immersed in the retelling of these events with an omnipresent point of view. His complex writing style and literary techniques contribute to the novel in a compelling and intriguing way. Capote uses a combination of literary techniques to present an almost vivid presentation of the actions associated with the murder. Capote uses a mixture of foreshadowing, structure and suspense and irony to retell the story of the Clutter murders. Capote uses foreshadowing most effectively in the first part of the novel to increase the suspense associated with the murder. The reader knows from the beginning of the novel, that the Clutters are going to be killed as a result of the varied descriptions of the Clutter family and the killers in section one .Foreshadowing in this section, also heightens the tragedy of the Clutter’s in lines such as “he headed for home and the day’s work, unaware that it would be his last” –which suggests the implication that a significant occurrence would result in the Clutter’s “last