Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Illusiveness of the American Dream Although the term “American dream” was coined in 1931 by James Truslow Adams in The Epic Of America, the ideology behind the American dream started back in the sixteenth-century when Western European settlers came to this land at great risk to build a better life for themselves. In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, the American dream is at the heart of the novel as the book is mainly based in Kansas- the heartland of America. As a whole, the American dream consists of the ideals of freedom, equality, and opportunity to be held for every American. Different perspectives from all the characters in the novel show how deceptive the American dream can prove to be. As “the master of River Valley Farm” (5) and a self-made man, Herb Clutter and his model family of four are a prime example of a stereotypical American family. The Clutter’s simple lifestyle of owning farmland and providing for themselves make them a cliché successful American family in the Midwest. However, Capote has a pessimistic perspective on the American dream, as in his eyes it leads to nowhere except the confines of death. Capote provides a journalistic approach to his writing and a deep analysis of some
The Clutter family has it, but Dick and Perry crave it. These two poor, embittered, and rootless people do not have the right mindset for the proper outcome of the American dream. They both started as poor kids, looking to work their way up and become self-started, successful men. However, both Dick and Perry made various poor decisions throughout their lives, met each other in jail, and their lives together thus ensued. They never try to find honest ways to make money, rather they spend all their time scheming and violating others in order to get money. Their methods ultimately fail every time and they always find themselves broke shortly after scamming