“Like the
waters of the river, like the motorists of the highway, and like the yellow
trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional
happenings, had never stopped there.” (Capote, Page 5)
Okay, so this is a simile. It compares one thing to another with
the use of “like”, in this case. But Capote uses tons of similes and metaphors
in his writing. I bet you could find at least one analogy per page in the text
of In Cold Blood. So why’d I pick
this one? Look at the three things he compares to “exceptional happenings” in
this quote: flowing water, speeding drivers, and streaking trains. This makes
it seem as though nothing is moving in the town of Holcomb, Kansas, and that
nothing interesting or newsworthy has ever happened there. And anyone who’s
read the back cover, or even heard about the murders, knows that if that’s the
case, the villagers are in for a huge shock. This quote suggests that these
people must basically live in seclusion, without anything especially out of the
ordinary ever happening. The first five pages of the book have been describing
the village in great detail, commenting on its slow, peaceful nature. But this
quote stood out to me because the uneventfulness of the town is so beautifully
and clearly said. Without this quote, we get the idea it’s a lazy town. This
quote makes it seem as though this town is stuck in time, with the rest of the
world moving on without it.
“Then,
touching the brim of his cap, he headed for home and the day’s work, unaware
that it would be his last” (Capote, Page 13)
Capote uses this type of foreshadowing a few times in the
beginning of the novel, but this is the first. This simple use of foreshadowing
makes the readers (or at least it did for me) more interested in Mr. Clutter
and what’s going to happen to him. It’s still pretty early in the book, so we
don’t know what’s going to happen yet, but this sentence makes it seem as
though he could be killed at any moment. This remark was agonizing for me, because
as I kept reading and started to get attached to the family members, I knew
that it wouldn’t matter, because I’d only read about them for a day more, at
the most. That makes the readers pay closer attention to him and his actions. It’s a mysterious way of suggesting that we
just live in present time, and we don’t know what’s going to happen to us in
the coming minutes, days, and years. The fact that he thinks everything is just
as it should be, but the readers know that he’s going to die in a matter of
hours, makes us feel like we’re a part of some big secret. This bit of
foreshadowing put me on the edge of my seat, fearing in vain for the lives of
the Clutter family.
“…the dream
of drifting downward through strange waters, of plunging toward a green
sea-dusk, sliding past the scaly, savage-eyed protectors of a ship’s hulk that
loomed ahead, a Spanish galleon—a drowned cargo of diamonds and pearls, heaping
caskets of gold.” (Capote, Page 17)
I think this imagery is just beautiful. While Perry waits for his
partner, Dick, his mind wanders from parrots to his mother to poetry to his
dreams of adventure and excitement. Here, he’s imagining himself swimming
deeper and deeper into the ocean. But this imagery is so vivid, that I can
actually see what Perry must be seeing. I mean, fish aren’t fish. They’re “scaly,
savage-eyed protectors” of a secret treasure that he is so close to reaching. Technically,
he and Dick are the villains of this book. And don’t get me wrong, the things
he and his partner do to the Clutters are acts of evil. But, when you can “see”
Perry’s thoughts, you can’t help but sympathize with him. I mean, all he wants
is a life full of traveling and adventure. Dick promises that, so Perry remains
loyal to him. But this imagery, and the paragraphs written from Perry’s
perspective, make us almost feel bad for him. He seems like a real person, with
real hopes and dreams for the future. This imagery separates him from Dick. So
far, Dick hasn’t shown us any real end goal or legitimate motivation. Perry has
that, and this imagery helps to show that he is a real person, doing what he
thinks is right.
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