In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis Essay

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Michael Carter AP English 3 In Cold Blood Rhetorical Analysis Essay Truman Capote, in the novel, In Cold Blood, asserts that Perry’s hallucinations are a coping mechanism for himself. Capote supports his assertions by exposing the meaning behind Perry’s yellow bird, using imagery when Perry finally understands he is going to die by capital punishment, and illuminating Perry’s attitude after he reads the letter from his father. The author’s purpose is to point out Perry’s sanity behind his psychotic episodes in order to explain the inner-workings of the mind of the killer. The author writes in an ambiguous tone for the educated readers so that is keeps the readers in suspense even though they know the outcome. Perry thru out the novel had this recurring dream about a yellow bird. Perry’s dream is first mentioned at the beginning of the novel when Perry mentioned his fantasy of him in a Las Vegas night club singing a self-composed song about parrots, “Every April flights of parrots, Fly overhead, red and green, Green and tangerine. I see them fly, I hear them high, Singing parrots bringing April spring…”(p.16) Dick felt the song was stupid, but Perry felt that Dick was pragmatic, yet Perry also mentioned that Dick’s literalness, “was the primary reason Perry had been attracted to him, for it made Dick seem, compared to himself, so authentically tough, invulnerable.”(p.16) Later Perry described the dream he had about the yellow bird in great detail. In Perry’s dream, Perry was trying to collect a bushel of diamonds in the trees, but there was a snake that guarded the diamonds. Even with the snake guarding the diamonds Perry was determined to get the diamonds. The snake ends up wrestling with Perry, and tries to swallow Perry. Perry then describes a, “towering bird” that would always rescue him. Throughout his childhood, the mysterious bird continued to
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