Selection+of+Detail

= Selection of Detail by: Parisa Esfahani, Lauren Peterson, and Jessica Mendoza. = = Capote explains Holcomb, Kansas with individual and specific details, which helps the reader develop vivid images of the text, while each detail is given greatness. As the land is laid out with beautiful imagery, the beasts of burden are described as, "grain elevators rising as gracefully as Greek temples." This grants the reader an idea of the agricultural nature of Holcomb. One can infer that Holcomb is not an industrial city, but rather a countryside of farming. He then goes on to explain the apparently abandonded city with its, "streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpaved." The reader is drawn into an old dance studio, "but the dancing has ceased and the advertisment has been dark for several years." The reader is now fully in belief of the vacancy and desolute nature of the town. The phrase, "the dancing has ceased," is a metaphor for the lost interest in the town. Another thorough detail given to the reader is of, "a gaunt woman who wears a rawhide jacket and denims and cowboy boots, presides over a falling-apart postoffice." This selection of detail is assisted by imagery and diction to create another metaphor for the broken town, itself. The inclusion of this, is perhaps to inform the reader of the meloncoly state of the population of Holcomb. =