Throughout the novel, Capote
continues to write from the perspective of the townspeople by including only
relevant information that the people know, adding nothing that was discovered
or inferred after the time period. He completely
skips the murder scene, jumping right to the next morning with a knock on the
door from one of Nancy Clutter’s school mates. He does this as a way of
prolonging the suspense of not knowing who the murderers are (though it’s pretty
obvious that Dick and Perry are), so no one was there to witness it as no one
was left alive. For this reason, there isn't anyone at this point who knows
what happened, so the reader doesn't either.
Rather,
Capote attempts to unravel the events of the murder with the reader by including
the reactions of the people of Holcomb. Everyone becomes a suspect and is
trying to figure out who did it and why. There really isn't anyone who had
motive, and very few people pass through town, leading them to believe it must
be friends. The Rupp’s, their closest neighbors, become prime suspects, and
there is speculation of Dick and Perry.
Capote does a nice job of
captivating the reader by almost making them feel like a citizen of Holcomb
because we only know as much as they do. We’re trying to figure out the
murderers and what happened as they are, and we feel the paranoia of watching
our backs, not knowing who is a friend or an enemy. It’s interesting to see the
reactions of the people in a small town where everyone knows everyone else, so
to have something happen like this is shocking to all. Capote wants this factor
to be evident by turning the story over dominantly to their reactions instead
of just a play-by-play of what happened. He makes it interesting because we
have to actively read and participate by trying to figure out what happened,
and see how the story plays out.
From reading this blog I can see that Capote exercises a lot of interesting strategies to make the story more suspenseful. In one post I read he made the scene in which the family was about to be murdered as mundane as possible. He dragged out their daily activities to make the day seem as normal as ever, the calm before the storm. And as you say he also makes you feel like a member of the town or a person in the book after the murders occur. These strategies really appeal to readers and me as well. It keeps everyone seemingly in the dark and puts readers through the happenings as if you were actually there experiencing them at the time. Really cool.
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