from In Cold Blood by Truman Capote
"It was ideal apple-eating weather; the whitest sunlight descended from the purest sky, and an easterly wind rustled, without ripping loose, the last of the leaves on the Chinese elms. Autumns reward western Kansas for the evils that the remaining seasons impose: winter's rough Colorado winds and hip-high, sheep-slaughtering snows; the slushes and the strange land fogs of spring; and summer, when even crows seek the puny shade, and the tawny infinitude of wheatstalks bristle, blaze" (10-11).
Student Responses:
I found the above passages from Anna's Stone AP English 2013 blogsite. Her blog site required students to respond to various online assignments over summer vacation. I liked this assignment called Favorite Sentence(s) so well that I felt it was beneficial to show you the level of writing by other 11th grade AP students; however, I added an additional activity where you respond to one other classmate in a specific manner.
Your Task: Find a favorite passage and explain the stylistic devices and/or rhetorical strategies that Truman Capote uses. After you post your response, your next task is to respond to one student's favorite passage by discussing how their passage connects to a theme or advances/contributes to the novel-like structure. You must cite the page number(s) for your favorite passage in order to assist the person repsonding to your post. Also, please sign your repsonse by indicating to me your class period.
This assignment is worth 40 Points.
Due Dates:
- Monday, November 5th: Your favorite passage with your analysis.
- Wednesday, November 7th: Your response to a classmate which highlights a theme within the novel or discusses the purpose of the passage by how the passage advances the plot or contributes to the novel-like structure that Capote creates.
Idyllic descriptions aside, my favorite passage is found on p. 79. Several close friends of the murdered family have cleaned the Clutter household, deeming it their “Christian duty” to purge the home of the family’s blood stained belongings. After accumulating all reminders of the Clutter’s gruesome fate, the troupe transports the relics to an open field on the property of River Valley Farm. Dousing the assortment in kerosene, preparing to ignite the remnants of the victims’ pasts, Andy Erhart, Mr. Clutter’s closest confidante, reflects on the merits of the family and speculates about the repercussions of the atrocity that has befallen the Clutters- “But that life, and what [Mr. Clutter] had made of it- how could this happen, Erhart wondered as he watched the bonfire catch. How was it possible that such effort, such plain virtue, could overnight be reduced to this- smoke, thinning as it rose and was received by the big, annihilating sky?”
The beauty of this passage and the simplistic metaphor it contains is found in its succinct and accurate reflection of the human attitude toward death. The Clutters were prominent citizens in Holcomb: Mr. Clutter was a successful and philanthropic farmer. Nancy Clutter was class president and future prom queen. With such esteem, it seems unnatural, even preposterous, that something as commonplace as death should have the power to desecrate the upstanding reputation that the family has built for itself. This ideal is neatly summarized in Andy’s thoughts. Furthermore, the symbolism of smoke as the Clutter family’s legacy is a clever rhetorical device employed by the author. Even the largest, most impactful fire is eventually reduced to smoke, much like the influential lives of the family. Lastly, the use of the word “annihilating” to describe the expansive sky adds an unexpectedly foreboding aspect to the passage, implying that the Clutters’ memory will dissipate just as surely as the smoke is obliterated by the sky.
There are many reasons that this passage struck me as I was choosing among my favorite passages in the book. Capote employs a complex style and uses many subordinate clauses in his prose. This technique creates a unique cadence, but the cadence of this passage stood out among the rest. He uses three past participles, “unnamed, unshaded, unpaved, to describe the streets of Holcomb. This clever device shows us that Holcomb is a small town that has not caught up with some modern conveniences such as paved roads without coming out and saying it blatantly. Capote subtly gives up some other interesting details about Holcomb, Kansas in this passage. He tells us that the Holcomb Bank closed in 1933, the peak of the Great Depression. He also tells us that there is a vacant dance hall in Holcomb. Presumably, the dance hall was a popular establishment in the 1920’s that went out of business during the Depression. These two details show the reader that Holcomb was hit hard by the Depression and is still recovering from its implications. The way that Capote delicately gives us detail makes this passage one of my favorites in the book. Another aspect of this passage that I thought was interesting was the foreshadowing at the beginning of the passage. He tells us that the streets of Holcomb turned from “the thickest dust into the direst mud” after it rains. The roads can be interpreted as a symbol for the Holcomb community, while the rain symbolizes tragedy for the community, such as the Clutter murders. The rain turns the roads into the “direst mud,” just like the Clutter murders turned the community into a disarray of fear and confusion. He uses the word “direst” to describe the mud, which is interesting because usually that word is used to describe a dire situation. By describing the situation of the roads after rain, he foreshadows the “dire” atmosphere of Holcomb after the Clutter tragedy.