Characters

Truman Capote spends much of the first 20 pages describing each of the characters and giving a description of who the characters are. Capote speaks highly of the "good family" of the Clutters, and talks down about the "Murderers" Perry and Dick. He describes the characters based on how they are in the book. He starts off by describing the Clutters as a family and the accomplishments that they have. He describes Mr. Clutter as "The communities most widely known citizen"(6). He then goes on to describe the accomplishments of Mr. Clutter's life. "Chairman of the Kansas Conference of Farm Organizations, and his name was everywhere respectfully recognized among Midwestern agriculurists," (6). Capote then talks about how everyone in town has lots of respect for Mr. Clutter because people who work for Herb have "small reason to complain" (10). He also talks about their daughter being the "town darling" (7). Capote talks about the struggles of the wife having "little spells" and her being a psychiatric patient. He talks the family up, so that the reader can think highly of the family, as they are about to get killed by two murderers. He also uses irony to describe the characters to the readers, "Then touching the brim of his cap, he headed for home and work, unaware that it would be his last"(13). He makes the readers hate the murderers for murdering this family. In order to get the reader to hate them, he talks down about them. "When it was settled- Mexico. Imagine being back in Kansas, when only four months ago he had sworn, first to the State Parole Board, then to himself, that he would never set foot within its boundaries again. Well, it wasn't for long" (14). From that description, the reader can tell that they were up to no good, and then made the readers hate them even more after they murdered the "perfect family". Capote sets up the characters for how they are in the book, by describing them very well. Capote immediately captures the attention of his readers by his descriptions of the characters.