Themes For In Cold Blood

Dreams Failed, Dreams Achieved

In Epic of America (1931), James Truslow Adams wrote that the American Dream is "…a dream of social society in which each human and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position." The notion of striving for dreams – the American Dream in detail – is central to…

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Christianity

The notion of Christianity as a force of redemption and salvation is explored in numerous ways throughout the book. Information technology's emphasized from the outset that Garden Metropolis is a strongly religious (and specifically Christian) boondocks. The Clutters are a Methodist family, and their Methodist frugality and temperance seem to be tied in with their apparent accomplishment of the American Dream.

Although Perry outwardly shuns Christianity – Catholicism in particular, given that he was at one…

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Evil

Primarily explored through the seemingly motiveless and random killing of the Clutters, In Cold Claret grapples with the question of what is and isn't evil. Characters – especially criminals – often concur conflicting and ambiguous attitudes toward evil. Perry, for case, seems to exist of the opinion that his killing of the Clutters wasn't necessarily an evil human action. When asked by his staunchly Christian ground forces buddy Don Cullivan whether he felt any shame or…

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Normal vs. Abnormal

Dick constantly asserts that he'southward "a normal," even though he has deeply aberrant concrete features (his confront is crooked thank you to a auto blow) and even though he's capable of committing various crimes – up to and including murder. The question of what's considered normal and abnormal is repeated throughout the book.

For example, what is a normal wedlock/family? In spite of being the perfect couple, Herb and Bonnie have a troubled wedlock. Dick and…

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Innocence vs. Experience

Prior to the massacre of the Ataxia family, Holcomb, Kansas (a small-scale town adjacent to the county seat of Garden Metropolis) is portrayed as a kind of Eden earlier the fall – a quiet, innocent boondocks where nothing of annotation happens. (Of course, it's afterward revealed in the volume that the region had its share of horrifying crimes long before the Clutters were murdered, but information technology's a time that'due south just remembered by the town'southward elderly…

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