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Of the conventional ideas of writing that Capote neglected, keeping the story in one setting at all times was among them. During his era, writers would take a story and focus on one main idea to follow it through to the conclusion. However, Capote used a slightly different approach; he had two main ideas working simultaneously.
The story began in the humble town of Holcomb. We meet the Clutter family and get a taste of what life is like in this small, quaint little Kansas town. Before any plot is laid out, though, the story jumps over to a new setting and idea: Dick and Perry.
This style of writing would be like watching two movies, one
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In Cold Blood does eventually end on a single thought when the criminals are caught and brought to justice. At the point when the KBI agents find and hold custody of the criminals, it’s apparent that they will receive the death penalty. Thus, with the slight background information that Capote gives before the story or perhaps an interpretive prediction, the reader is naturally going to assume what Dick and Perry could possibly want to do with this town. Though some authors would have tried to create a suspenseful ending, suggesting that the criminals might have gotten away, Capote simply tied the knot to the story. The movie would eventually come together when the two different scenarios meet; when Dick and Perry enter Holcomb and murder the Clutter family. Instead of using “cliff-hangers” between chapters, when an author would make an open-ended statement suggesting that something that of great importance is to come, Capote essentially eliminated the entire “chapter” idea.
The reason Capote used this method was to create an effect of confusion, followed by understanding. One the one hand, it’s apparent that Dick and Perry are evil-minded men, they both have criminal records and they have also done time in jail. Allowing the reader to think that the criminals were to escape the penalty for murder was not an idea that Capote wanted to incorporate in his work. The reader naturally interprets that something horrible is destined to occur. Now the reader is in question of how the two stories will be intertwined.
This ongoing suspense finally hits its climax when the murders take place. Capote had created suspense of his own by dividing the plot in half.
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