In Cold Blood, by Truman Capote, is a stunning piece of literature that follows the murders of an innocent family, as well as the murderers fleeing from law enforcement, including their eventual capture, trial, and execution. Throughout Capote's writing of the novel, he conducted many personal interviews with Holcomb residents and the murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. Capote's personal influence on the supposed non-fiction novel leads the audience to believe that he has "manipulated reality for the sake of art." Truman Capote truthfully crossed moral and ethical boundaries when he wrote In Cold Blood, and his personal relationships with the criminals led to an altered portrait of Dick and Perry, as well as an extended appeals process, in order to ensure the storyline went perfectly.
Truman Capote involved himself in the story more than he should have, crossing virtuous boundaries in the process. Not only did Capote have an alleged sexual and deeply personal relationship with Perry Smith, his writing clearly shows more favoritism towards Perry, covering his background far more in-depth than he did with Dick. In this way, Capote crossed boundaries no author nor journalist should ever cross. Any true artist should never involve himself this extensively in his own work. Capote had a moral obligation to write an unbiased piece of nonfiction novella that enables the reader to obtain a clear picture of how an innocent rural farming family was savagely murdered by these men. According to opposing points of view, Capote was successful in this area; however, by paying for Dick and Perry's appeals process, Capote is manipulating other men's lives for the sake of a juicier ending and dragging out the proceedings for the possibility of more personal time with Perry.
The opposition may claim that Capote did not "alter history" and that the novel was simply a more in-depth and personal account of the Clutter murder mystery. ...
