Characterization

Do you think Dick and Perry were sane? Did the psychiatric analysis of them and descriptions of other cold blooded killers surprise you? Scare you? Make you think differently about violent crime or the death penalty? Explain your response.

Pathos

Capote seems to paint Perry in a more sympathetic light than Dick. He seems sensitive and even kind at points; however, by the end you find out that Perry committed all four murders. Did that surprise you? Did you sympathize with Dick more than Perry at any point? Or did you not "buy into" any of the kind characterizations? Explain.

Pathos

How did Capote humanize the killers? Were you surprised by how likable they could seem despite the brutality of their crime and unremoresefulness to the end?

Writer's Craft

Why do you think Capote did not describe how the murders happened until Dick and Perry were caught and gave their confessions?

Narrative Structure

Why do you think Capote split the narrative into three sections?

Suspense

How does Capote build suspense despite the fact that readers know the ultimate outcome from the beginning of In Cold Blood?

The Rhetoric of Characterization

One of Capote's goals in detailing the events of this murder case is to affect how the reader feels about Hickock and Smith. What do you believe was Capote's intent in making the reader spend so much time with these two individuals; i.e., how does he want you to feel about them? What phrases create these feelings in the reader? Analyze dialogue and diction in forming your answer.