In Cold Blood: Two Intents, One Novel On November 15, 1959, the whole nation was shocked by a ghastly murder involving four family members in the discrete farm town of Holcomb, Kansas. It was most shocking because a crime of this magnitude with no motive was rare. This was so discomforting a well known author, by the name of Truman Capote, moved to Holcomb to record the townspeople’s reaction to the tragedy. The idea of how they responded to the crime gave Capote the idea to write a book. In Cold Blood was originally written to show how a small town is affected by a murder. But while Mr. Capote was writing the book they police caught the killers. This paved way to a second authorial intent. In Cold Blood start to shift to explain the idea of what makes a killer a killer. Truman Capote wrote In Cold Blood to show how a small town is affected by and responds to a murder and at the same time what makes a killer a killer.
Capote started writing In Cold Blood with the intent of showing how a small town is affected by and responds to a terrible murder, and uses this setting to his advantage. The horrifying murders of the Clutter family occur in Holcomb, Kansas. This location is the definition of small town America where everyone thinks they can trust each other. In this part of the country, “[t]he land is flat, and the views are awesomely extensive; horses, herds of cattle, a white cluster of grain elevators rising gracefully as Greek temples are visible long before a traveler reaches them" (Capote 3). No one would expect such a tragedy to occur in a remote town like this Holcomb. One more fact helps Capote in achieving his first authorial intent. Holcomb, Kansas is located in the absolute center of the nation. By establishing such a vicious crime in such a previously peaceful and innocent setting, Capote demonstrates that there is no place in America that is truly