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Truman Capote
What position comes closest to your view about the punishment of the Clutter family murderers?
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Herb Clutter
What question do you most want answered in reading the book?
Kansas Plain
The technique of intercutting which is used throughout In Cold Blood is widely used not to confuse the reader but rather to create a more thrilling reading experience. While you remain focused on each storyline separately, the style keeps you hooked, never knowning what the author will talk about next and never certain of when the stories will cross. It keeps the suspense at a high and makes you want to keep reading. Without the affect of intercutting, the storylines would be basic, and the Cutter’s would most likely sound like a typical book about typical country people instead of what it really is. It also shows that the trials throughout the book will be complicated and complex, similar to the writing itself.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Aubrey in that the complex way of writing is preparing the reader for a complex story, full of twists and turns that will keep you hooked throughout the book. It keeps the reader interested and on their toes because of the new charecters that are constantly being introduced and the storyline that is always being added to and put into more depth. Although the style of reading is clearly more confusing, I think that it also benefits the reader because it offers multiple opinions and perspectives of the story almost simoltaniously.I feel that it allows the reader to more accuratley decipher the affects of the actions of others.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator writes in this style throughout the entire book, however the chapters which contain the murder have a more apparent connection. Dick and Perry have a seemingly almost heartless feel towards what they just did, which is a large comparison to how the people of Holcomb are feeling, and friends of the Clutters. However, with the intercutting style of writing the perspective of both is much more clear. And in result this style of writing is helpful in the long run, although very confusing at times.
Agreeing with both of the previous posts, the intercutting in my opinion keeps the reader more interested in the story. Having them crave to read more, and wanting to read into the depth of the story so that even that smallest little detail isn’t missed. As the story unravels going from scene to scene, I think that the two separate stories are going to soon clash in the end, and giving the reader the realization of the event that will occur. As the story goes on, slowly the pieces of the puzzle are put together slowly but surely creating this thrilling plot that becomes clearer and more apparent to the reader. As the story started out the first chapter ended, knowing that someone dies. As the story goes on Mr. Clutter, “touching the brim of his cap, he headed for home and the day’s work, unaware that it would be his last.” (p. 13) This gives us more evidence to the story, and flipping to the stories you see Perry and Dick scheming of some sort, giving the reading these vague examples of what could have been.
ReplyDeleteI believe that the use of the intercutting is used for several different reasons. The first and most simplistic reason would be to introduce all of the player in the story. From both sides of it. Another reason would be that it almost provides the feel that there are indeed two stories rather than just one. Not only is there the story of the Clutter's, but also the Clutter's killers. The final reason would be to change the plot of the story from being a common murder mystery, but rather a story about the motive for the Clutter murders. To this end i think that the intercutting method worked quite well.
ReplyDeleteI agree with the previous posts. However, I have a slight disagreement with Adam's posts. I agree that the intercutting technique is used to to hear from both sides of the crime scene, but I don't think that Truman Capote was trying to change the plot. Dick and Perry's side of the murder is evident in the story, but I think the story is still meant to be a mystery. We already know who committed the murder by piecing both sides of this story together. Piecing information together is involved in a mystery. We aren't immediately to the reasoning behind the crime, which still keeps it a mystery. This is my only disagreement. The intercutting technique, as was stated in other posts, is used to keep a reader's interest. Even though we are immediately told who would die, which would normally have been the climax,the story switches to the killers' side of the story. It's almost two books in one. One book as about the death of the Clutters and the people who try to find the culprits. The other story involves two men who barely know each other committing a crime and try to live life afterward. The reader keeps reading just to see how the two stories end.
ReplyDeletei agree with Adam, the idea of intercutting is used to help the reader see two different points of view. when an investigator looks over a murder scene they need to consider all possibilities. self defense, was their a weapon, etc. there are always two sides to a story. it also creates a question in the readers mind. what provoked the murder, how did it escalate, and how did it cause the murder of a family? though i also believe that intercutting can be used to change a person's ideas. you might think someone is guilty, when in reality they are more innocent than anyone in the story. it can be used to cast suspicion on another character.
ReplyDeleteEven though at first glance, the method of alternating the last days of the Clutter family with the story of the menacing plans of Dick and Perry is somewhat confusing and hard to follow, once carefully read over, this method attempts to produce an effect that builds up suspense for when the two stories “meet”. Although for more basic readers, this effect may be hard to grasp, I believe that it does achieve its desired effect. The reason for this is that I was “on the edge of my seat” waiting for the paths of the Clutter family and Dick and Perry to collide. When this finally happened and all the members of the Clutter family were murdered, I realized that this effect was apparent and it was extremely successful. However, although it achieves it desired purpose of making the story more suspenseful, I believe an alternate reason for this is that the Author wanted to keep the stories of the Clutter family and Dick and Perry completely separate until he was ready to let them collide.
ReplyDeleteIntercutting in the case of “In Cold Blood” seems to be a device used to keep the reader interested. By allowing the two separate storylines to remain in different places in time and place at any given moment, it causes the reader to think about what is happening. Unlike a typical murder mystery, this book isn’t a mystery. So the intercutting is also a way of keeping up the suspense because a reader does not know when and where in each storyline certain events are going to happen. It is a way of taking a well known story, or a true story, and turning into a novel that still holds some element of surprise.
ReplyDeleteThe intercutting used creates a sense of foreshadowing. Where the sections involving the Clutters do not suggest the murder at all, the sections with Dick and Perry show the reader that something is wrong. I also think that it provides the reader with the perspective similar to an evidence file. The story is not strung together, there are pieces missing, and the time frame is not always apparent. This is similar to the evidence that police obtain. A murder scene never reveals evidence willingly, so it is appropriate that In Cold Blood is written in this style. The chapter right before the Clutter's murder is depicted in vivid detail is about one of the witnesses in a courthouse describing the scene of the crime. The murder scene is constructed starting from this chapter with fragmented accounts of what happened at the clutter farm, which is similar to a murder trial. The evidence is not given in a linear fashion, so the interspersed chapters about Dick and Perry give a police's perspective on the story. The intercutting technique achieves the affect on the reader well. It is also done in a way that is not so confusing that the reader does not understand the plot. The reader understands the plot enough to have a vague understanding of the events, but never enough to see the full picture.
ReplyDeleteI think that intercutting in this story gives it more completeness because of the fact that it gives you more than one point of view to hear the story from. Also I tend to agree with Adam when he says that it almost provides the feel that there are two stories intersecting at one point, which gives the plot of the story a major twist. Also I agree with Robert that it creates a since of foreshadowing because if it was just from the point of view of Perry and Dick then it would be a story about the formation of a murder and how it takes its course. But since he uses intercutting, it becomes more of a story of a small town tragedy and I think this makes the story much more interesting.
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