Snell

Please break your essay up into the following component parts, highlighting the various parts of each paragraph as follows:

Thesis: dark blue Topic sentence: red Opinion/analysis: light blue Supporting detail:purple Commentary: green Transitions: pink

Introduction: In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, Capote characterizes the isolated, dreary, and deserted town of Holcomb, Kansas and displays his own personal style by using imagery, syntax, and tone. Body Paragraphs: Throughout the passage, vivid imagery of Holcomb is used to display to the reader the level of desolation that occurs. The reader is first acquainted with Holcomb, "some seventy miles east of the Colorado border...it's hard blue skies and desert air has an atmosphere that is rather more Far Western than Middle West." Holcomb can now be seen as a peaceful desert area that seems almost void of people. Its desolate streets and buildings also describe the town. "The depot, itself, with its peeling sulfur-colored paint, is equally melancholy." The vivid imagery portrays the rotting and aging of the once important buildings. The town, the people, and the land are described in great detail as completely desolate and unimportant. Imagery helps to portray the town, but Capote also uses sytnax to help induce the readers feelings on a deeper level. Syntax is also used in the passage to convey greater emotion. In the sad, lonely town "after rain or when snowfalls thaw, the streets, unnamed, unshaded, unpawed, turn from the thickest dust into the dirtiest mud." Capote uses syntax and parallel structure in this sentence to amplify the sense of isolation and neglect. Holcomb was small and mostly unheard of, but "like the waters of the river, like the motorists on the highway, and like the yellow trains streaking down the Santa Fe tracks, drama in the shape of exceptional happening, had never stopped there." Again, syntax and parallel structure are used to make the drama even more apparent to the reader. Capote's use of syntax contributes to the passage's drama and set the stage for the tone that Capote applies. Capote's tone throughout the passage even further emphasizes the feeling of desolation in Holcomb. Holcomb is large, flat, and "can be seen from great distances...not that there is much to see..." It is clear that the town is dry and deserted as Capote sets the tone to isolation. The houses and buildings are described briefly. There is a small congregation of apartments, "but the majority of Holcomb's homes are one story frame affairs, with front porches." This description sets the tone to monotony, as if all the houses were exactly the same. It conveys to the reader the smallness and unimportance of the town. Capote's tone of desolation contributes greatly to the passage. Conclusion: In this passage, Capote's style can be seen though the imagery, syntax, and tone he uses. As he goes through each, it brings the reader a closer and more meaningful understanding of Capote's view of Holcomb.