Diction

·       “The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome are that other Kansans call ‘out there’…Holcomb, too, can be seen from great distances.  Not that there is much to see—simply an aimless congregation of buildings…a haphazard hamlet…streets [that are] unnamed, unshaded, unpaved…with its peeling sulphur-colored paint…and is equally melancholy” (4).

In the beginning of In Cold Blood, there is a frequent use of negatively connotated words that are simple for the most part, but in order to add sophistication and credibility to the novel, the author incorporates some polysyllabic words.  The higher diction appeals to ethos because it shows that the author is educated and has knowledge of the town where the murders took place.  This is important since the book is based off of a true story.  For example, the words “lonesome,” “aimless,” “unnamed,” and “peeling” are negatively connotated words that represent and help develop a mysterious and complacent tone regarding the overall image of the town.  Capote sets out to illustrate through his choice of diction, and the help of imagery, his portrayal of the town of Holcomb as one that is unimportant and constantly over looked.  He describes the town with the color “sulphur” to show that it is dull and boring.  The author even mentions the word “melancholy” because the town does not receive many visitors, if any at all.  However, the formality of the novel is shown through the polysyllabic words and its subjective diction such as “congregation,” “haphazard,” and “melancholy.”  These words not only help add sophistication, they aid in the developing of the scene and set the tone for the rest of the novel as well.

·       “Like the waters of the river, like the motorists of the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama, in the shape of exceptional happenings, had never stopped there…[The people lead] and ordinary life—to work, to hunt, to watch television, to attend school socials…” (5).

This quotation, pulled from the beginning of the first section, describes common actions that the members of Holcomb do on a daily basis.  The author uses the repetition of “like the” and “to” in order to show the community’s unvarying way of life.  The reader can infer that use of such repetition is meant to show Holcomb in an unimportant or uninteresting fashion.  The monotonous tone is represented by these two different anaphoras.  On top of this, the phrase “had never stopped there” connotes that the small town was, in a sense, unchanging.  The diction represented in this statement is simple in order to mirror the simplicity of the town.

·      “But this chunky, misshapen child-man was not pretty; the pink end of his tongue darted forth, flickering like the tongue of the lizard.  He was smoking a cigarette, and from the evenness of his exhalations Nye deduced that the was still a ‘virgin’” (224).

Capote mentions that Dick is a “virgin” after he is done interrogating him for the first time.  However, this simply means, and is later explained in the novel, that the suspect is still unaware of the real purpose of the interview that he is currently apart of.  He does not realize that the detectives are not accusing him of violating his parole, but for murdering the Clutter family.  This unique word choice emphasizes the idea that Dick is not very perceptive to the hints of the detectives and remains uninformed.  The words in the quotation above such as, “misshapen” and “child-man” are negatively connotated words that portray Dick’s innocent and mistaken way of thinking at that moment.  It is this diction that adds to the suspenseful tone right before the climax of the novel is reached – when the confession is finally obtained.