In Cold Blood Authorial Intents - 1703 Words

In Cold Blood: Two Intents, One Novel On November 15, 1959, the whole nation was shocked by a ghastly murder involving four family members in the discrete farm town of Holcomb, Kansas. It was most shocking because a crime of this magnitude with no motive was rare. This was so discomforting a well known author, by the name of Truman Capote, moved to Holcomb to record the townspeople’s reaction to the tragedy. The idea of how they responded to the crime gave Capote the idea to write a book. In Cold Blood was originally written to show how a small town is affected by a murder. But while Mr. Capote was writing the book they police caught the killers. This paved way to a second authorial intent. In Cold Blood start to shift to explain the†¦show more content†¦Not everything is back to normal though. Many people moved away from the desolate town to more populated areas. Alvin Dewey never built his dream farm house. Instead, â€Å"[he] built a new house in town† (341) . He did this because his wife was scared. This proves that no matter how much closure one can receive there will always be some fear left. Throughout In Cold Blood, Truman Capote presents the idea of how one’s upbringing can shape what kind of person he becomes. This idea ultimately ends up showing what makes a killer a killer, which is Capote’s second authorial intent. As a child, Perry Smith was neglected by his parents, which ultimately leads to his psychological problems and him killer the four family members. All of his siblings went to school, but he was never allowed, and Perry never forgave his dad that they had the opportunity to get an education but he did not. He always despises all well educated people because they got an opportunity that he did not. For example, while Perry was on death row, he did not get along with one of his fellow inmates named Lowell Lee Andrews. He would always correct Perry’s speech and this made him mad. Perry felt that he should keep his â€Å"mouth shut [rather] than to risk one of the college kid’s snotty lines† (318). While Perry was a child he was also abandoned at an orphanage that was run by nuns. While he was there, [t]here was this one nurse... she [would] fill a tub