Adam Pesce Ap LangIn Cold Blood: ORB Project HISTORICAL CONTEXT: In Cold Blood, a 1966 book by author Truman Capote, tells the true story of the barbaric murders of 1959 of a successful farmer from Holcomb, Kansas, Herbert Clutter, his wife and two of their four children. When Capote was informed of the murder of these four innocent souls before the two selfish men were captured, he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime. Nelle Harper Lee, a childhood friend and fellow author, accompanied him and together they interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case. As a result, thousands of pages of notes for Capote's literary works have been documented. The killers, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith, were arrested six weeks after the murders and after the criminals were found, tried and convicted, Capote arranged personal interviews with both Smith and Hickock. Capote portrayed Smith as the more sensitive and guilt-ridden of the two killers due to his fascination with Smith. Rumors of an affair between Smith and Capote persist to this day. The book was not completed until Smith and Hickock's execution. Capote ended up spending six years on his book, which became the biggest mystery seller of the time and is almost universally recognized as one of the best books of its genre ever written. SYNTAX: Capote uses linguistic choices such as syntax, the arrangement of words and sentences to create well-formed sentences in a language, to make his novel effective and give it novel character. An example of the syntactic technique used by Capote is an observation comparing two sentences from Capote's novel. "The Garden City representative of New York Life Insurance smiled as he looked at Mr. Cl... in the center of the paper... he would never have seen and their eyes are marked by the terrible events. The people of Kansas have a positive outlook on life and their own future, yet after these tragedies their vision of security and positivity in the world can no longer be recovered Another theme present in the book is the thought about the self-image of the homicidal madness controlled by how they perceived themselves, as well as how they wanted to be perceived. After Perry's psychiatric evaluation, the reader learns that Perry is “overly sensitive to the criticisms that others make of him, and cannot tolerate being teased. Is quick to sense offense or insult in the things others say" (297) Both Perry and Dick wanted self-recognition that makes it clear that both characters have serious problems with their ego and self-esteem..