Narrative Journalism in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood

Abstract

This paper deals with how Narrative Journalism influences the novels in literature with special reference to the non-fiction In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. The author is forced to yield a serious new art form in Literature through Narrative Journalism. To demonstrate the literary techniques of the novel, Capote applied Literary Journalism. In a simple definition, Narrative Journalism is a technique and stylistic strategy traditionally associated with non-fiction, and also  it  is at  times  used  interchangeably with creative non-fiction. Capote learned of the quadruple murder in The New York Times, before the killers were captured. Then he decided to travel to Kansas and write about the crime with his fellow author Harper lee who has also written a few non-fictions. Here Capote brings out the true crime story for which he interviewed local residents and investigators assigned to the case and took thousand pages of notes. He also took extensive detail and simultaneous triple narrative. And the story is told from two alternating perspectives; the thought of the murderers and the people affected by the crime. Capote’s purpose of writing this novel was to let the readers know about the prior planning, thoughts and purpose of the crime by the murderers that would not be shown in a typical news report. Unlike other authors his objective was in showing the mindset of the murderers while committing the crime. The highlight of the study is how Narrative Journalism is applied in Capote’s In Cold Blood.