Tenno

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 his novel In Cold Blood, Capote displays Holcomb, Kansas as an unimportant, unassuming midwest town using imagery, subject matter, and pacing. Each of these serves to emphasize the relative unimportance of the town.

Body Paragraphs: Capote uses many images in the course of this excerpt. His descriptions of how the Arkansas River, Route 50, and the railroad tracks pass by the town is an image of how the world is passing the town by. His diction in this case implies that the trains, and the world in general, have little or no connection with Holcomb. In fact "those celebrated expresses never pause here." Capote also uses the grain fields as a powerful image. As many who have been to the midwest can attest, the grain fields seem to swallow up anything that goes into them. The image of a town swallowed up in a field is used to describe how isolated Holcomb is. The images of the Holcomb bank and the "old stucco structure" which "supports an electric sign being rundown and abandoned contributes to the overall image of a small, technologically simple town. In late 1950's America, electricty was present everywhere, yet in this small town the sign has been dark for a long time. All of this, as well as what he chooses to write about, contributes to the image of Holcomb being a small, underdeveloped town. In his subject manner, Capote further emphasizes his view of Holcomb. He has only chosen to write about the relatively negative aspects of the town (with regard to technology). Life in 1950's America may be hard to imaging for the people of 2011, but there must have been at least a few houses with working electricity and power. But no, Capote's only descriptions of technology are a broken down advertisement and a train that only passes through the town. His inclusion of the "unnamed, unshaded, unpaved" roads gives the reader an image of a Wild West town from cinema. All of these details have been included for a specific purpose, that purpose being to reenforce Capotes view of Holcomb as unimportant and undeveloped. Near the end of the passage however, all that begins to change. It becomes apparent that Capote has overemphasized the unimportance of Holcomb to provide a foil to what happens next in the story. it is unclear as to what exactly will happen, but it is clear that it will make Holcomb into a large, important town. But for now, the town keeps existing at its own modest pace. How Capote paces his writing is also an important aspect of his view. The pace of the excerpt seems to plod along, moving at a slow pace appropriate to the small town described by Capote. His gradual inclusion of each new subject makes the passage slowly plod along, seemingly accomplishing nothing. The slow moving life of the town seems to be setting up for some larger action in the future, in order to provide a contrast the action to. Capote gradually moves into the town, passing over seemingly endless grain fields in the process. The narrator seems to take pauses in certain areas, as if giving a tour of the town, Far from subtracting from the story, they give it a more personal feel as the reader begins to emphasize with the postmistress and Mrs. Hartman.

Conclusion: Capote uses any stylistic devices to further his view of this tiny town. While he does this, it seems that he is setting up a foil for another, action-filled part of the story. Nevertheless, he uses imagery, subject matter, and pacing to refine his view of Holcomb as a small, unimportant town.