Idealization of the Clutters Isabel Sebode 11th Grade

The novel ‘In Cold Blood’ by Truman Capote is a work of Fictional Journalism, otherwise known as ‘faction’ or ‘the non-fiction novel’. Initially, this might make it difficult to judge whether Capote tried to influence the reader’s opinion on the Clutter family deliberately. However, taking into account the use of rhetoric in media, such as newspapers, and combining that with the descriptive qualities found in novels, one can argue that Capote does try to shape a certain image of the Clutter family for story-telling purposes. He deliberately uses several predominant themes in order to create an idealized image of the Clutters and on the other hand he unintentionally uses certain narrative techniques, which allow the reader to decide on what to think of the family themselves.

The first convention that Capote uses, in order to build an image of the family as a whole and each individual, is stereotypes. Throughout the first pages of the novel, during which he thoroughly describes each of the characters, he creates a very stereotypical image of an American family living the ‘American Dream’. The first character being introduced is Herbert Clutter: “His shoulders were broad, his hair had held its dark color, his square-jawed,...