In Cold Blood, pheasant hunting?
I’ve noticed that there is several instances of pheasant hunting found throughout the book In Cold Blood. Once when pheasant hunters come to Mr. Clutter’s home and ask if they may pay him to hunt; he does it for free. It also describes pheasants etched along the shotgun used to kill the clutters prior to the murder. Again it describes “A remarkable day for pheasant hunting” moments before the realization of the murder, and just prior it tells of Perry and Dick arriving at the town. Also, the family of the Life Insurance Agent, receives a call about the murder as the wife plunges a knife into a roast pheasant. It also describes the pheasant hunter’s as just passing through, not affected by the atrocities at all. Another instance, “to a halt, but not the beautiful Indian summer, with its flow of clear, pure days.” It also describes Dick as a former pheasant Hunter. His act of pheasant hunting had adverse effects on his father, as he was forced to pay the bill; he was already sick and didn’t need more pressure. Why did Capote include all of this? It pops up so much, it must have some sort of significance? I’m so bad at critical thinking…
It’s been awhile since I’ve read the book( 3 times, actually), so I might be
a little rusty, but I think the references to pheasants and pheasant
hunting is part of Capote’s way of describing the rural and rustic
setting of the area where the Clutters lived. It was pheasant hunting
season and Mr. Clutter had the perfect kind of property to hunt on.
His allowing the hunters to hunt free of charge showed his kind nature
and also put a little seed in your mind that here were these guys with
shotguns and the Clutters were killed with shotguns. Could these have
been the people that did it?
Also, pheasant hunters were apt to have pheasants etched on their
guns. The remarkable day for hunting was a way of setting a contrast
between what started out as a beautiful fall day and the gruesome
crime that happened that night. The Devil came to Eden, if you will.
The agent’s wife preparing a pheasant was just another in a string
of strange coincidences in the story.
Dick’s part in all this was to show the kind of callous, self-centered
sociopath he was. Causing his dying father more trouble and heartache
didn’t faze him at all- neither did killing the Clutters. Plus, the Hickocks
were so poor, they often had to hunt the food for their next meal, but
Dick didn’t mind running up more bills for his ailing father to pay.
So, the pheasant hunting, weather,rural setting, evil child, good
decent man( Mr. Clutter), were all used to set the scene of the murders
and give the reader a sense of disbelief that something like this could
happen to such nice people in such a lovely, peaceful setting.
It serves to make the murders all the more horrifying.