In Cold Blood - Book Report/Review Example

Filled with scenes, rather with historical narratives of the events, as well as conversational speech and first-person point of view, new journalism has distinct elements that separate it from standard retrospective journalism and from the usual literal non-fiction. It is this new way of presenting events that Truman Capote pioneered with his book "In Cold Blood". The book "In Cold Blood" describes the murder of Herbert Clutter, a wealthy rancher and prominent citizen of Holcomb, Kansas his wife, and his two teenaged children in November of 1959.

They were brutally murdered in their home by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, two paroled criminals. Truman Capote, in the unique style that is to become the foundation of new journalism, chronicles the search for the killers by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation. In the book, he successfully describes the mindset of the killers, as well as the other real characters in the book, after extensive research and interviews with the persons involved. He successfully captures not only the spirit and mind of the characters but also the synergistic effect of the entire intricate net of people and events that set the backdrop of the book.

A fine example of it is his description of the jury: "Not everyone was attentive; one juror, as though poisoned by the numerous spring-fever yawns weighing in the air, sat with drugged eyes and jaws so utterly ajar bees could have buzzed in and out." In his book, Capote also shows surprising empathy for the murderers, and Hickock and Smith accumulate a few fans. Many critics believe that the prologue of the book is essentially devoted to the killers. As any prologue, it explains the basics and foundations on which the book starts, without the necessary and sometimes tiresome explanations that come with it.

The prologue of this book is rather simple, but its meaning is no less significant. It represents the first four lines of a poem by Francois Villon called "Ballade des Pendus" or the Ballad for the hanged:My brothers who live after us,Don't harden your hearts against us too,If you have mercy now on us,God may have mercy upon you. Although simple, it explains the human side of the criminals. Not evident, but existent, the author tried to convey the message, that although to the objective eye this crime can only be done by a monster without scruples, the human element in each of us is always existent.

In essence, it embodies the beginning of the new journalism- where objective facts are not the only things that create the news, but also the points of view of each and everyone that is involved. As it can already be deduced, the works that have been created in the style of new journalism have both journalistic and literal elements. In the third paragraph, we can clearly see the journalistic as well as the literal elements. For example, the description of the postmistress "a gaunt woman who wears a rawhide jacket and pieces of denim and cowboy boots, presides over a falling-apart post office."