Holcomb, Kansas

Novelist, Truman Capote, in his nonfiction book, “In Cold Blood,” recounts the village of Holcomb, Kansas in his perspective. Capote’s purpose is to convey the idea that an ordinary town can be altered by a single event. Although Holcomb, Kansas is a tedious town, a single event can change a community and its members perceptions of reality; therefore, Capote's distinct characterization of Holcomb before the crime emphasizes the impact the murders have on this once innocent community. Because Holcomb is an ordinary town, Capote uses a sarcastic tone to emphasize the unimportance of it. He begins his excerpt by describing Holcomb as a beat-up and torn-down town. “Holcomb, too, can be seen from great distances. Not that there is much to see…”. Capote intentionally concludes the sentence with, “Not that there is much to see,” to stress to the readers that Holcomb is plain, and uneventful. It is critical for the readers to know that Holcomb is an ordinary town, so they can understand that one event can make a town extraordinary. The novel consists of more sarcasm, when Capote starts a paragraph with, “And that, really, is all.”. The tone exemplifies the fact that it is of small detail and…

the city of Holcomb, Kansas. In order to illustrate his opinion, Capote employs a number of stylistic elements. He also use spatial description. To portray his view, Capote makes use of imagery, diction, tone and selection of detail. Overall, he sees the hamlet of Hamlet, Kansas as a town with an inactive and spiritless town. Throughout the entirety of this excerpt, Capote organizes it by utilizing spatial description. He describes his surroundings while using selection of detail. He focuses…

Capote’s In Cold Blood, Capote describes a small desolate ghost-town that doesn’t even register on the map by the name of Holcomb, Kansas. This sounds like a place I would not want to visit. Capote conveys his thoughts about Holcomb through the use of imagery and selection of detail. In the text, “hard blue skies and desert-clear air” describes to the reader an image of what the countryside appeared as. “The streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, turn from the thickest dust to the direst mud,”…

Times. Before the killers were caught, he began his work in Kansas. He interviewed the people of Holcomb and did extensive research with the help of his childhood friend Harper Lee, who went on to write the classic To Kill a Mockingbird. The character of Dill in To Kill a Mockingbird was based off Truman Capote. Capote lived next door to Harper Lee every summer vacation, and he entertained her with his very imaginative and interesting tales. Dill’s friendship with Scout is a quite unique and…

In the opening excerpt from In Cold Blood, Truman Capote characterizes Holcomb, Kansas as a lonely, abandoned little town that focuses mainly on the children’s education and schooling. It’s a rather unknown settlement, in fact it’s “a lonesome area that other Kansans call ‘out there.’” The excerpt reveals many descriptive qualities about the scant Kansas town and Capote portrays his ideas into words very clearly. Capote conveys this view by using elements such as high, concrete diction and…

By stating a quote from the bible almost gives the people of Garden City and Holcomb reassurance that God “gives them permission” and it is an okay thing to do. The hypocrisy is clearly shown throughout In Cold Blood by the people wanting to kill Dick and Perry for killing the Clutter Family. Capote illustrated these people as hypocrites because they want to kill Dick and Perry that killed the Clutters, which essentially makes the towns people killers, but they are punishing Dick and Perry by…

Quote: “The land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them" (3) Element: Capote provides the reader with a sense of the setting in this quote by describing the flat land of Holcomb, and the farm based structure of the town. He also specifically compares the clusters of grain to Greek temples. Effect: While Ancient Greeks are primarily known for…

Although the town of Holcomb is characterized by its innocence, Capote uses language to contrast the innocence and simplicity of the town before and after the murder; therefore, it makes the murder seem more personal. The essay begins in a simple and uneventful way to put into perspective how ordinary the town was before the murder. Right away, Capote explains the ordinarity of Holcomb: “the village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans…

The rigid traditional views of the Bible Belt in the 50’s are challenged in the 1965 nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. When two petty thieves murder a prominent family and devastate the countryside town of Holcomb, Kansas the ideal family environment is tainted. At first, there is no clear motive, but as the novel progresses, the reader gets a taste of the convicts’ warped American Dreams. At that time in history, Americans were enjoying the post WWII prosperity and families like the Clutters were…

There is evil that made its mark in 1959 when the Clutter family was murdered in their own estate. Truman Capote the author of In Cold Blood tells the story of how a loving family who did no wrong could perish so easily by men who were possessive and vicious. He wrote this book shortly after the incident and a movie was later made in 1967 to show the tragedy of the Clutter family’s death. The movie is in the perspective of the murders and has on and off scenes of the Clutter family. Though,…