Truman Capote's In Cold Blood reconstructs the Clutter family murder and case investigation in what Capote calls a "nonfiction novel ", an experimental type of journalism that combines the fluidity and continuity of a novel with the facts and sources of a work of nonfiction while maintaining the appeal of both formats. The story revolves around the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959 at the hands of Richard "Dick" Hickock and Perry Edward Smith, two seemingly conflicted men whose greed ultimately leads to their ruin, with dialogue, backstory and concrete facts. evidence to flesh out the beginning, middle, and end of the truth surrounding the parody. While the thrill of discovering the hidden truth brings to life what would otherwise be a bland newspaper article, the novel slowly reveals the errors, deceptions, and half-truths that shroud the mystery of the end of the Clutter family. It is easy to forget that the characters and events in the story were and are real due to the concept that novels are fantasy or purely imagination, but Capote's use of pathos, imagery, and atmosphere to elaborate the Clutter case using his experimental nonfiction novel as a means to portray the fruits of his research instills in the audience that the characters, events, and consequences of the murder are indeed real. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Capote uses pathos throughout the novel to accentuate the reality of the murder and the people involved in it to bring the tale to life beyond mere words printed on pages, paying particular attention to Perry's life story to create sympathy and pity for someone who would otherwise be deplorable given their situation, which then follows up with observations about other characters. While each section of the novel creates a kindred feeling between the audience and the characters through the extensive use of pathos, Capote strategically targets Perry, a man the reader knows is guilty of murder, and surrounds his character with a tragic backstory: “I was scared because I thought my father would hurt me. . . [She] beat me furiously with a large black leather belt, pulled me out of bed by my hair, dragged me to the bathroom, threw me into the tub and turned on the cold water. . .” (Capote 274). His childhood conveys an abusive and loveless relationship with his parents as the missing piece of the puzzle of his mental illnesses, justifying his current state of mind while developing his character into a pitiful one. However, Capote firmly reiterates the fact that while Perry's devastating childhood may have led to his current state of mind, it is not an excuse or an attempt to escape punishment. This helplessness the audience feels as they are torn between feeling pity or disappointment in Perry creates a sense of sympathy for his situation due to the inevitability of the hand he has been dealt; this hopeless situation attracts the audience's sympathy, thus making Perry a tragic character that readers can identify with due to his very human reaction to his scars. His non-cliché past of violence and abandonment are flaws in his character, and since humans are naturally flawed in real life in various ways, Perry's flaws give him an air of realism. Unlike characters in other novels who seem too good to be true, Capote illustrates Perry as a broken but loyal man who sticks to his own questionable morals. Because of his imperfections, audiences can relate to himhimself in a way where he is constantly reminded of the fact that he was a real person with real feelings and, ultimately, a real death. It makes the audience wonder and reflect on the reasoning behind why someone would take the life of another; to what extent was the killer, Perry, pushed to consider murder? These questions and the flaws that arise from them help create a bond between the audience and Perry, as he also experiences emotions like the audience. Unlike other characters in novels that are simply fantasy, Perry was actually a real person who lived life as the audience did, albeit a stranger to the joys of life, and readers are constantly reminded of this through his flaws, thoughts and errors that have emerged. from Capote's pathos-based description. Vivid imagery is an important part of Capote's novel due to his ability to captivate the audience with his beautiful descriptions and situations that shock them to their reality, a factor that is usually lost in novels but is not. in In Cold Blood. The information contained in the highly descriptive images that Capote weaves into the text creates a sense of surreality, as if the reader is seeing it through the eyes of the characters themselves. Instead of simple two-dimensional visions drawn from the text, Capote reminds the audience that his novel is also nonfiction by appealing to our senses when he writes during Clutter's funeral: “The four coffins, which quite filled the little flowered parlor, had to be sealed during the funerals - understandably because, despite the care taken in the appearance of the victims, the effect obtained was disturbing. Nancy wore her cherry red velvet dress, her brother a brightly plaid shirt; the parents were more modestly dressed, Mr. Clutter in navy flannel, his wife in navy crepe; and - and it was this above all that gave the scene a terrible aura - each person's head was completely wrapped in cotton, an inflated cocoon twice the size of an ordinary inflated balloon, and the cotton, having been sprayed with a shiny substance , sparkling like the snow on the Christmas tree” (95). The reader is overcome with a feeling of terror as he reads “victims” and “head” due to advance knowledge that the family are murder victims who were shot in the head. The image of a horrific mass funeral enters the reader's mind as they read the overly descriptive text, a scene in which each of the four heads is covered in a layer of cotton to hide their gruesome wounds from public view. The atmosphere is dark and sorrowful; the family is dressed in beautiful clothes despite their grotesque shapes, almost as if to mock the people who miss them and wish they were still alive. As the audience replays this scene in their heads, they come across the undeniable fact that other characters, even real people, have been greatly affected by this funeral and the deaths of the Clutters. The dark atmosphere over the funeral and its images is almost palpable, in stark contrast to the liveliness of the family while they were still alive; readers take this into account and unconsciously catch the little details: the reactions of those around them, the gruesome descriptions of their corpses, the funeral service, the specific words used to illustrate the event, and, above all, the dark mood of the le images invoke. Eventually, these little fragments add up, and suddenly and shockingly, the audience realizes the effect the Clutter family's death has had on others around them. It makes them realize that because this is nonfiction and they were real people, the impact around them was also real. The images.