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In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis

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In Cold Blood Essay In the opening of In Cold Blood, Trueman Capote presents a picture of the town of Holcomb. Capote uses a sense of condescending tone, sterling imagery and superb selection of detail when describing Holcomb. He creates a picture of an old style town that is all run down and has one or two positive things. Capote uses condescending tone; sterling imagery and superb selection of detail, he uses these rhetorical devices to express his view of a Holcomb in a negative viewpoint. Throughout the passage, Capote uses sterling imagery to convey his view of Holcomb. In the passage Capote sees Holcomb as a negative sight. He shows this by saying “...Haphazard hamlet bounded on the south by a brown stretch of the Arkansas... Street... Turns from the thickets dust to the dirtiest mud.” Capote also says “...Gaunt woman who wears a rawhide jacket and denims and cowboy boots” when referring to the people of Holcomb. In these two descriptions of the town, these show a negative view of Holcomb and how old-fashioned it is. Capote also says it is “...More Far Western than Middle West” which shows an image of the town is old-fashioned and run down like the old-time Western towns. …show more content…

Capote talks of the city as an observer and describes Holcomb in a more negative viewpoint. He describes the town as “unnamed”, “unshaded” and even “unpaved” which gives the reader a negative viewpoint toward the image of Holcomb. He also describes many of the buildings as run-down including saying “...A falling over post office” which shows the city is pretty much not a good image. But later in the passage, Capote changes his view on the town and the people saying things as they are “comfortable people” and the town “has done well”. So, the tone shifts through the passage, first it had a negative view, and then a positive view on the town of

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