Not Quite Non-Fiction

We recently started reading Truman Capote's In Cold Blood in class. It's not like the other books we have read in the pasts months, but it sure looks like it. This feature article is quite exceptional as it's a work of non-fiction although I can't wrap my head around how closely it looks like an murder mystery. I have only just started but I'm sure many questions will be answered as I move along.

What makes it seem as a murder mystery are Capote's description of the town and persons in this account. Capote starts of with the description of town, Holcomb, as a very odd and boring place. Not to mention Capote's descriptions give of a very solemn tone to the place. As Capote states, " At one end of the town stands a stark old stucco structure, the roof of which supports an electric sign-DANCE- but the dancing has ceased and the advertisement has been dark for several years." (p. 4). Though the solemn description of the town, Capote illustrates the future of the town, "Unless you include, as one must, the Holcomb School, a good-looking establishment, which reveals a circumstance that the appearance of the community otherwise camouflages: that the parents who send their children to this modern and ably staffed "consolidated" school..." (p 4). With this he represents America's society with one interesting town. 

Another thing that intrigues the reader of how closely Capote's article relates to a novel is the dialogue and character description. Already giving the hint that Mr. Clutter is one of the murder victims, Capote undoubtedly chooses to include dialogue and description. "Though he wore rimless glasses and was of but average height, standing just under five feet ten, Mr.Clutter cut a man's.man figure. (p 6). Again Capote's way to represent American society and relate with the reader before a dreadful end.