Imagery in in Cold Blood - 876 Words

Truly successful authors have the ability to convey their view of a place without actually saying it, to portray a landscape in a certain light simply by describing it. In the opening paragraphs of In Cold Blood, Truman Capote does just this. Through his use of stylistic elements such as selection of detail, imagery, and figurative language, Capote reveals his own solemn and mysterious view of Holcomb, Kansas, while setting the stage for an imminent change. Beginning in the first line of the passage, Capote selects the most boring details of life in the small town in order to portray its character. He draws attention to the physical isolation of Holcomb by referring to it as the place that other Kansans call out there. In addition,†¦show more content†¦In addition to including the most boring of details, Capote uses a great deal of imagery to describe the town and its residents. Focusing mostly on visual appeal, he describes the sulphur-colored paint and flaking gold to reveal the towns appearance and has-been status. Portraying the area as one that has seen better days, Capote writes about the old stucco structure that no longer holds dances, the crumbling post office, and the bank that now fails to serve its original purpose.† Combining visual imagery with hints of desolation, Capote attempts to reveal the gray and boring nature of the town through its appearance. He does not, however, rely only on visual details; in de scribing the local accent as barbed with a prairie twang, he uses both auditory and visual appeal to make one imagine a ranch-hands tone of voice and pattern of speech as he describes the events of his farming days. The hard blue skies and desert-clear air contribute to a feeling of emptiness, an emotional vacancy that seems omnipresent in the small town. Finally, even the steep and swollen grain elevators that represent the towns prosperity are seen in a solemn and mysterious light, as Capote makes certain to mention that the townspeople camouflage this abundance without explaining why they choose to do so. Capote also uses a great deal of figurative language and contrasts to portray the small town as solemn and dead, yet somewhatShow MoreRelatedLiterary Imagery In Truman Capotes In Cold Blood1282 Words   |  6 PagesTruman Capote was a literary genius and had quite the way with words. His book In Cold Blood was a true work of literary art that he created with various rhetorical strategies and the truthful stories told by Garden City’s people and the two murderers of The Clutter Family ,Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote’s use of imagery, tone, and syntax when describing Perry the murderer of the Clutters is undeniably ingenious and brings out a more fiction feel to the story. In this essay I will provideRead More Blood Imagery In Macbeth Essay590 Words   |  3 Pagesbeing a heroic general in the kings army to an assassin and a tyrant. The theme of the play is never give into evil because it destroys no matter what the benefits are. Blood Imagery is very important i n the play; it shows Macbeths evil ambition in the beginning, middle, and end of the play. In the beginning of the play, blood imagery is very important. quot;Till he unseamed him from the nave to the chaps, / and fixed his head upon our battlementsquot;(I.ii.22-23). Macbeth has just killed the enemyRead MoreA Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens1420 Words   |  6 Pagesviolence enacted by the citizens of French on their fellow countrymen set a gruesome scene in the cities and country sides of France. Charles Dickens uses a palate of storm, wine, and blood imagery in A Tale of Two Cities to paint exactly how tremendously brutal this period of time was. 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Sylvia Path turned to using imagery in her poem â€Å"Daddy† such as comparing her father and men to ghastly statues, Nazis, and even vampires; meanwhile she compares herself, and to a larger extent all women to the Jews in concentration camps. Plath’s use of imagery relays her feelings of enslavement by men expertly to the reader. One of the things that strikes you when you read the poem is her use of imagery to compare her â€Å"Daddy†, which represents her father, as well