Tow #12 - IRB #1 "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote

 "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote is the story of the Clutter family's murder and the search for the killer. It takes place in 1959's Holcomb, Kansas; a normally quiet town. When an author is retelling a story, the most import aspect of the retelling in the way the author tells it, specifically through figurative language so the reader is able to completely visually the event as it happened. Truman Capote does an incredible job of incorporating rhetorical devices into the first half of "In Cold Blood" in order to provide the reader with a vivid scene. For example, Capote employs anaphora to set the scene of Holcomb, Kansas. He describes the town "Like the water of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape for exceptional happenings, had never stopped there" (5). The repetition in the sentence allows for the reader to connect the similarities between the water, the motorists, and the yellow trains; they are all things that do not stop when they are in motion. The reader then visualizes that the "exceptional happenings" or anything out of the norm does not stop in this quiet town, which draws a striking contrast to the odd murders that occurred here: the focus of his story. Later, he uses a simile to give us a better understanding of the Clutter family's life, more specifically Mrs. Clutter. She suffered from postnatal depression, and that "the mood of misery never altogether lifted; it lingered like a cloud that might rain or might not" (27). This raises questions to the reader: Why would Capote mention this if it was inconsequential? Did her depression correspond to the murders? The comparison between her depression and the rain cloud keeps the audience on their toes and engaged, which helps Capote relay the story. Truman Capote is a professional story teller through his use of rhetorical devices when retelling the story of the Clutter family murders in "In Cold Blood".