Intercutting

The narrator alternates an account of the last days of the doomed Clutter family with the menacing plans of Dick and Perry. What is the purpose of this technique of intercutting? Does it achieve its effect?

Guitars, and Tiger Tattoos and Cherry Pie . . . Oh My!

In the first section are there any objects that are or might be symbols? The guitar that Perry has in the back seat? The tattoos of Dick and Perry? The socks that Mrs. Clutter wears to bed? The cherry pie that Nancy helped Jolene to bake? The fruit trees on Mr. Clutter's property?

Perry and Dick

Perry and Dick were acquaintances when they were in the penitentiary together, but they were never that good of friends, not nearly as good of friends as Perry and Willie-Jay. In Perry's mind, Willie-Jay is the only person who really understood him. If this is the case, why did Dick and Perry reunite, and why did Dick choose Perry to help him with this mission and vice versa? What is similar about these two men that allow them to get along?

Greece in the Heartland

In the opening page, the narrator describes "a white cluster of grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples" (3). Does that comparison strike you as odd? What do Greece and Kansas have in common? What is the narrator evoking by an allusion to classical antiquity? What is the purpose of this simile, other than an apt description?

Somewhere UNDER the Rainbow

In Cold Blood begins with an evocation of Holcomb, Kansas. We have a description of the landscape of the Great Plains and of the ethos of small-town America. How do these descriptions create a mood or atmosphere? Does the setting prepare us for what will follow (foreshadowing anyone?)? How important is the setting to the themes of the story?