In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis as Anti Capital Punishment Ray M. Bartlett 10th Grade

Through the use of a carefully chosen epigraph, organization, a non authoritative presence, embellishment, researching the character’s backgrounds, and pathos, Truman Capote is able to tell the story of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith in great detail while also presenting his argument against capital punishment in his masterpiece In Cold Blood.

Before the book begins, Capote sets the tone with a verse of “Ballade des pendus” by Francois Villon, which he composed while on Death Row in 1463. Capote kept the excerpt in its original French, but when translated it reads “Men my brothers who live after us, / have your hearts not hardened against us. / For, if on poor us you take pity, / God will sooner show you mercy.” This poem is very subtly foreshadowing Capote’s intentions of writing the book about the killers and their point of view, as well as attempting to make the reader feel pity for them. The poem also references religion, which plays a very important role in the story with the Clutters and especially Perry. Villon’s backstory also has a surprising amount of similarities to Dick and Perry’s crime spree; he murdered a priest, stole from a strongbox right before a crime spree with a gang, and then was arrested for brawling and...