A Syntax Analysis of In Cold Blood essays

A Syntax Analysis of 'In Cold Blood' essays In the early hours of November 15, 1959, Herb Clutter, a prosperous farm owner in the city of Holcomb, Kansas, was brutally murdered with his wife and two of their four children. Fascinated by the lack of motive and evidence, author Truman Capote traveled to Kansas in the company of his friend Harper Lee to write award-winning In Cold Blood, a book detailing the four murders. With his elaborate sentence structure and one-of-a-kind seen syntax, Truman Capote was able to successfully reconstruct the murders and depict the capture, trial, and execution of the two killers, Richard Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote structurally divides In Cold Blood into four titled sections: The Last to See Them Alive, Persons Unknown, Answer, and Corner. Within each lengthy section, the narrative switches back and forth between several characters, demonstrating the different experiences of each individual. In a small chapter in The Last to Them Alive, Capote describes the Clutters family home before becoming a murder scene. He writes, The furniture of the den, a cement-floored room that ran the length of the house, consisted almost entirely of examples of his [Kenyon] carpentry (shelves, tables, stools, a ping-pong table) and Nancy's needlework (chintz slip covers that rejuvenated a decrepit couch, curtain, pillows bearing legends: Happy? and You Don't Have To Be Crazy To Live Here But It Helps)" (38). In this passage, Capote utilizes parenthetical phrases to better develop the lifestyles of Kenyon and Nancy Clutter, two of the four murder victims. Although it may be argued that the surplus of such d etails is unnecessary, this sentence structure grants the reader an opportunity to learn more about the characters behaviors. By learning of the innocence of the young victims showcased above, the readers can sympathize for this family and realize they were not des...