Journal Entry # 2 In Cold Blood

5 comments


1.) Perry and Dick are walking contradictions of each other.
2.) Mrs. Clutter and Mr. Clutter have a distant relationship.
3.) Kenyon seems to be lost without his best friend around.
4.) Nancy seems to be the star child of the family.
5.) Perry is too smart to be in and out of jail.


4 questions


1.) Why does Capote focus so much on the lifestyle of the Clutters?
2.) Why does Perry promise to kill someone?
3.) Why is Dick such a bad husband and father?
4.) How come Perry doesn't do something more productive with his life?

3 vocabulary words


1.) Agog - highly excited by eagerness Pg. 24
2.) Ethereality - light, airy, or tenuous Pg. 25
3.) Despondency - state of being despondent Pg. 27


2 literary techniques


1.) "A dictionary buff, a devotee of obscure words, he had been intent on improving the his companion's grammar and expanding his vocabulary ever since they had celled together at Kansas State Penitentiary." Pg. 22 This is characterization because the reader is learning more about Perry's personality.
2.) "....each word exactly, ejected it like a smoke ring issuing from a parson's mouth." Pg. 23 This is a simile because Capote uses like to describe something.



1 summarizing sentence

1.) Dick and Perry are going to kill every Clutter for their entertainment.

In Cold Blood Journal Entry #1

5 comments

1.) Capote did painstaking research in order to write this book.
2.) Mr. Clutter and his wife do not sleep together.
3.) Mr. Clutter is extremely religious and is against his daughter dating this boy at her school.
4.) Capote is talking about Mr. Clutter's life in order to get the reader familiar with Mr. Clutter's life.
5.) Between Perry and Dick, Perry is the intelligent one, and Dick is the not so intelligent one.

4 questions

1.) Capote said "four shotgun shots ended six human lives." Who are the other two people with ruined lives?
2.) How do Perry and Dick end up at Mr. Clutter's house?
3.) What provokes them to kill the Clutter's?
4.) Why does Perry have to waste his time with a guy Dick?

3 vocabulary words

1.) Twang - to give out a sharp, vibrating sound, as the string of a musical instrument is plucked Pg. 1
2.) Beneficence - the doing of good; active kindness or goodness Pg. 5
3.) Impringed - to encroach; infringe Pg. 5

2 literary techniques

1.) "The village of Holcomb stands on the high wheat plains of western Kansas, a lonesome area that other Kansans call "out there." This is the exposition because it is the beginning of the book. Pg. 1
2.) "Some seventy miles east of the Colorado border, the country side, with its hard blue skies and desert clear air..." This is personification because the sky cannot be hard. Pg. 1

1 summarizing sentence

1.) Perry and Dick are driving around, and they eventually arrive to the Clutter's house. This arrival will change their lives forever.