In Cold Blood: Summary EssayBook Information:Author : Capote, TrumanTitle : In Cold BloodPublisher : Random HouseOriginal Publication Date : 1965Book Outline:In a small town in Kansas a family of four were murdered for no apparent reason. The murderers ran for a few years and finally they were caught, tried, andaccused for murder. In 1965 they were hung for the crime.
In the story a family was killed for no reason. This well respected farmingfamily had no enemies, and no quarrels. Although they were wealthy, Mr. Clutternever kept cash in the house.
The whole region and eventually the country wasshocked by the randomness and brutality of the act, in much the same way it wasby the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The two men in which didn’t even know theClutter family went into their house and shot all four of them. There were two main characters. Dick is the first one that I will talk about. Dick was 33 years old and he did not have the best character.
Dick was one whohelped participate in the killing of the Clutter family. I didn’t like him fromthe very beginning. He struck me as the type that is your friend one minute andenemy the next. Perry is the other charecter that I will talk about. Perrywasn’t as bad as Dick but yet he still struck me as having a bad character forwhat he did to the family.
It took me awhile to get a good impression of Perry. Perry was a really nice guy and I think that he just got mixed in with the wrongcrowd. At the beginning, when they first started to kill all of the familymembers, they had them tied up and Perry didn’t want to kill the family but hethought that if he acted like he was gonna kill Mr. Clutter then Dick would stophim. Then they would let them all go but when Dick didn’t stop him Perry becamea mad man and went ahead and killed the whole family.
Later at the gallows Perrystarted to have second thoughts a little to late so he tried to starve himselfbut didn’t succeed. He was finally hung, during the hanging period he apologizedto everyone for what he did. “This is it, this is it, this had to be it, there’s the school, there’sthe garage, now we turn south. ” To Perry, it seemed as though Dick was mutteringjubilant mumbo-jumbo.
They left the highway, sped through a deserted Holcomb,and crossed the Santa Fe tracks. “The bank, that must be the bank, no we turnwest-see the trees? This is it, this has to be it. ” The headlights disclosed alane of Chinese elms; bundles of wind-blown thistle scurried across it. Dickdoused the headlights, slowed down, and stopped until his eyes were adjusted tothe moon-illuminated night.
Presently, the car crept forward. This passage waschosen because it was what Dick and Perry were saying right before they went tothe Clutter house and killed the family. I feel that this quote is animportant one. To me I feel that it suggest’s that the accused were out tocommit a robbery, and had no original intent to kill the Clutters. Due to Mr.
Clutter not keeping any money in the home, the criminals were unable to locateany money to steal. The criminals then proceeded to kill the family of four. Ifeel that the murderers used the Clutters as a way of removing their anger fromnot being able to locate the money they were looking for. The book follows thestory to the trial and execution of the killers, and spares few detailsthroughout. The outcome of the trial was guilty and the punishment was deathby hanging the accused.
One of the main points I saw by reading this book was the way the country /region viewed itself after the murder occured. Many were shocked by the murder. I feel that if the murder had of occured in todays society people would not havebeen as shocked as they were then. When the story was based, not as manymurders existed, and this crime was just a total outrage to the normal society.Why is the book on the Law reading list? Legal aspects of the book:I feel this book is on the law reading list because it provides the story thatis based on law .
