Cold Blood an Analysis of Book Review

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He has to object to it to keep from confronting it in himself. The Oklahoman is not so cynical, however, for he immediately grasps hold of Parr's contradiction and cries out, "Yeah, and how about hanging the bastard? That's pretty goddam cold-blooded too" (Capote 306). The Oklahoman objects to the murder, which he views as a product of that coldness which he hears in Parr's words. The Oklahoman may represent a kind of outsider, not yet tainted by the American thirst for blood and sentimentality. To save the killer, he is willing to grant mercy, if only it will help put an end to the coldness.

At this point another man, the Reverend Post, interjects his thoughts. He seems to understand something of mercy, but at the same time he despairs of ever seeing it: "Well,' he said, passing around a snapshot reproduction of Perry Smith's portrait of Jesus, 'any man who could paint this picture can't be one hundred percent bad. All the same it's hard to know what to do. Capital punishment is no answer: it doesn't give the sinner time enough to come to God. Sometimes I despair'" (Capote 306). The Reverend's inability to reconcile sin with redemption is evident: he tries to place the reconciliation in terms of time, which does not exist for God, Who may be said to be outside of time. Thus, when he laments that the gallows may not give Smith enough time to repent and be saved, he makes a sadly childish and sentimental argument. Capote suggests that Smith has already repented in his attempt to accept responsibility for all four murders and spare Dick's mother the grief of seeing her son executed.

Thus, the man convicted of cold-blooded murder is actually portrayed at the end of the novel as having more warm blood than many of those who walk around free, like Parr or the Reverend (who, in spite of his sentimental faith, lacks the kind of warmth needed to place him in the same category as the Oklahoman -- whose pity is real, and whose plea for mercy reflects a kind of divine warmth).

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Obviously, then, the book is as relevant today as it was 50 years ago -- for what has changed? Has America gotten any warmer in charity, or has it rather become colder and bitterer? While the mass-murders increase (one need only think of the shooting spree in Colorado this weekend), one is compelled to wonder where the Oklahoman has gone with his keen sense of humanity underneath the appalling coldness that allows the crime to be committed. The Oklahoman allows for the return of warmth and understands why people become cold. He is alive with a kind of burning love. That love sometimes seems hard to find, especially today. Therefore, Capote's in Cold Blood is a fresh reminder of what it means to be human, whether murderer or onlooker, repentant or judge. All are brothers with the same blood, redeemed as the Reverend asserts by the Blood of Jesus.

In conclusion, the men convicted of the murder of the Clutters in Capote's true-crime novel represent the coldness in American life that all men are prone to. That coldness is the by-product of a shallow faith (as seen in the words of the Reverend Post) and a vindictive way of life (as seen in the words of Prosecutor Green: a "you better get him before he gets out and gets you!" kind of advice to the jurors). In other words, Capote reflects a day and age whose love is sentimental rather than reasoned, and whose sense is frosted by a coldness akin to that which allows men to murder. Since that day and age is still very much with us today, the book is as equally valuable now as it was then.

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