Fiction in Nonfiction - In Cold Blood and Fictionalism

Truman Capote reconstructs the murders of the Clutter family with extensive detail in his nonfiction novel In Cold Blood. The accuracy of these events and classification of the book's genre are two things that have been criticized since the novel's release. Assuming Capote believed all his gathered information to be the truth in respect to what actually happened in Holcomb, Kansas, this work follows the criteria for a nonfiction novel and is justifiably classified as just that. In spite of its nonfiction label, it is inevitable that Capote fictionalized the book to a certain extent to appeal to an audience already familiar with the situation at hand.

To fictionalize is to take something that actually happened, and alter the story by adding in fictional elements so that these events are now different from what actually happened, but still "based on true events." To clarify my definition more, think Hunter S. Thompson, pioneer of gonzo journalism, who blends fiction into his journalism to emphasize an underlying message or to engage the reader more. Thompson fictionalizes his accounts by adding in his personal experiences and feeling towards the topic at hand. Granted Thompson's work is more creative non-fiction, it still serves the purpose to demonstrate my definition of what it is to fictionalize a story. Both Capote and Thompson use this fictionalization in their works and can be classified under the new journalism subset.

An example of Truman Capote's fictionalizing can be seen in his reconstruction of the story scene by scene. Having thousands of pages in research, Capote's intent was to have as much detail as possible so that he could accurately reconstruct the story. Regardless of how extensive the research is, some of the details included in the story are impossible to know, specifically the Clutter's final day before the senseless murders. Capote could not have known the Clutter's exact day up until their death, and must have fictionalized to a certain extent in order to complement the scene-by-scene cinematic style in which this novel is written. The style of writing demonstrated in this book differs from regular journalism in that the way he presents it has a lot of fictional elements. The facts are not presented in a straight-forward journalistic style, but rather with colorful descriptions and vibrant imagery. This can be seen immediately in the first page of the book, where Capote describes Holcomb as a place "on the high wheat plains of western Kansas [...] with its hard blue skies and desert-clear air [...] The local accent is barbed with a prairie twang, a ranch-hand nasalness, and the men, many of them, wear frontier trousers, Stetsons, and high-heeled boots with pointed toes." (Capote 3) The description of Holcomb goes on, but this is this kind of description and imagery used throughout the entire book. He presents the story in a sort of contrasting manner, for example the part where Nancy Clutter is baking pies, immediately followed by a description of what Dick and Perry are doing. This character development and sequence of events adds to the intensity that leads up to the murders. The accuracy of all these events is indeed questionable, though.

Capote relied heavily on memorization when he conducted his interviews for "In Cold Blood", and this could contribute to some fictionalized or inaccurately described events and interviews. Peoples' memories are not always one hundred percent accurate, and the absence of tape recorders and written notes only makes the legitimacy of this nonfiction work questionable. A more reasonable approach to this can be seen in Anna Deavere Smith's work "Twilight: Los Angelas" in which she conducted interviews and took notes on what the interviewee said verbatim, including every 'uh' and 'um', so there is really no room for misinterpretation as to what the interviewee actually said. Granted Capote set himself in the middle of it all and interviewed people in Kansas that had first person accounts of what happened, the truth is inevitably distorted through communication in one way or another, making a completely reconstructed truth nearly impossible.

In addition to all residents Capote talked to, he had a relationship with both Dick and Perry, the two men behind the quadruple murder. I would think it is potentially dangerous for Capote to befriend Dick and Perry but he had to get into the minds of the killers. Reading this novel, I can say that I sometimes felt empathetic towards these cold blooded killers. Capote writes about them as they are real ordinary people, and I sometimes got caught up in that. Perry Smith confesses "I didn't want to harm [Mr. Clutter]. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat." (Capote 302) This quotation emphasizes how psychologically disturbed the killers are and allows the reader to get a sense of what goes through their minds. This is an element that fits my description of fictionalizing, because it is what most traditional non-fiction works lack.

Regardless of whatever genre this book is classified under, I think it is unfair to dispute that it is a completely non-fictional account. This book would not have had the same effect had Capote not fictionalized certain parts. Capote spent nearly six years compiling research by moving to Holcomb and getting to know the Holcomb, Kansas residents and even the killers themselves. This book is a product of an experimental yet highly successful style that, at the time of release, was an immediate sensation. The creative aspect of the work makes it engaging and therefore much more compelling than ordinary non-fictional or journalistic accounts.