In Cold Blood close reading

Capote’s opening sets the scene of Holcolmb being a quiet and small town in Kansas. Sitting on flat lands, the town is visible from a far distance. The detail projects that it is an ordinary small town.

As Capote continues to describe the town, he changes the pace to descibe the loneliness of the town and expresses that it is almost forgotten. He points of an electric sign where dancing has ceased and an irrelevant sign on a closed bank, which demonstrates that there is not a lot of activity.

Continuing to describe the town, he mentions a falling apart post office, peeling sulphur-colored paint, passing passenger trains, and only seeing a grocery store and a cafe. This shows that the citizens of the town enjoy the comfort of living far from cities. The citizens are okay with places shutting down because it doesn’t affect their lifestyle.

“And that, really, is all.” states that Holcomb is empty and not exciting. The tone he uses to describe the school makes the reader think that the school is the one thing Holcomb can be proud of. The school is the only thing that is modernized.

When he changes the scene, he wants the reader to know that something unusual happened and the event was big enough to catch the attention of people who have never heard of Holcomb. He doesn’t tell the reader what the event was because he wants the tension to build with the realization of a life changing event.