Nonfiction In Cold Blood

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To make a piece nonfiction, all information and events presented must be based on facts. In Cold Blood, written by Truman Capote, is a book that has been questioned whether it is nonfiction or not. There are many critics that claim this book is nonfiction as it is about a real life murder case. However, Capote’s excessive details and description of the case let us question further whether this book is nonfiction or not. His description and details of the actual murder, the murderers themselves, and the long process of the trial, makes us question how he actually knows all of this while not being at the actual setting of the murder. Capote’s overly detailed and inaccurate information makes us wonder how credible and authentic his piece really …show more content…
According to “Truman Capote’s Greatest Lie,” written by Laura Miller. Miller discusses about the facts that Capote included in his piece. According to Miller, Capote wrote that the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the KBI, and the Dewey, the detective, believed immediately that Dick and Perry were the murderers. However, it was later revealed by the prosecutor, Duane West, that “Dewey was convinced it was somebody local who had a grudge against Herb Clutter.” (Source E). This explains the inaccurate facts that Capote puts in his piece. He changed the actual facts for it to fit well in his book. This defies the meaning of a nonfiction text because the information presented by Capote is not what actually happened. Besides having inaccurate information, Capote also adds in selective details. Throughout his book, he centers around Perry and Dick, causing the readers to sympathize for them. Although it is interesting to hear about the murder’s past and their point of view, he focuses too much on them rather than expanding on the murder case itself. According to “The Line Between Fact and Fiction,” selective details leads to subtraction of important information. It states, “This process of subtraction [selectivity] can lead to distortion. Context can drop, or history, or nuance, or qualification or alternative perspectives.” By being selective of his information, Capote cuts out important information about the murder. He focuses too much on creating a character for the murderers, that the murder case itself is overshadowed. Ultimately, he creates information that emphasizes on certain points that he wants the reader to focus
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