Cold Blood Qs the Description

¶ … Cold Blood Qs The description of domestic chaos in the paragraph on page 163 that begins, "When Dewey got home..." functions to humanize the murders themselves as well as the people involved in the case (in this case, Dewey specifically). It is a reminder that amongst all of the police work and even the atrocity of the murders committed in the otherwise sleep little Kansas town, the mundane details of everyday life continue.

This is a large part of what made has made this book so popular and enduring; Capote did not stop with the details of the murders and their fallout, but truly explored all of the lives that the events touched and drew together. In another way, the paragraph almost trivializes what goes on in everyday life.

The complaints of Dewey's wife -- even when they are about something as major as their son starting a fire that "threatened the neighborhood" are revealed to be largely unimportant in the face of other news. In this way, the paragraph both creates an intimacy regarding the murders, yet also sharply separates the murders from the rest of life in an odd paradox of literary style.

2) In a way that is somewhat similar to the previous paragraph, the sudden break in chronological order that Bobby Rupp's testimony creates in the structure of in Cold Blood serves to humanize the events describe din the book. After spending a good deal of text detailing the recent lives of the two murderers, Capote turns to the last night that the victims were alive.

It is as though he is setting up two trains on the same track on an inexorable course towards each other, but at the same time making it very clear that these are real people, not abstract characters. Using Bobby Rupp's testimony to interrupt the story of the killers creates an abrupt and deeply personal shift of focus.

His description of Nancy, his on-again/off-again girlfriend, shows how much the Clutter's were cared for and respected in the community: "Nancy was wearing socks and soft slippers, blue jeans, I think a green sweater" -- Rupp's memory of details helps the reader to clearly picture this victim (51). The abruptness of the shift in focus also mirrors the abrupt change in circumstances -- for the community, the murderers, and most obviously the Clutters themselves -- that the murders created with shocking suddenness.

3) Capote creates a concrete and palpable tone in the section beginning "The cider-tart odor.." On page 206 of in Cold Blood by using words that evoke the sense of death and decay now that the murders have been committed. His language choices juxtapose images of life and vibrancy with.