Analysis of in Cold Blood

Analysis of in Cold Blood

  • Submitted By: jadew
  • Date Submitted: 03/04/2009 10:38 AM
  • Category: Book Reports
  • Words: 851
  • Page: 4
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Analysis of Page 296-298 with regard to its discourse features as a persuasive speech by the prosecution. Identify the key devices and explain their effects. The extract starts “Green woke them up”, the dynamic verb woke highlights that what Green has to say is important and requires full attention as he begins his persuasive speech so that he can capture everyone in the court from the beginning. He is speaking “without notes” echoing a sense of confidence from the beginning, in that his prosecution is easy to set out because of the amount of evidence there already is and the brutality of the murders is clear. The pleas on behalf of the defendants, Perry and Dick, are described by Green to be “energetic”. This choice of adjective is a clever one, as it does not imply that it was either successful or unsuccessful. Instead it gives the impression that they tried their best yet the “admirable attorneys” never stood a chance in defending Dick and Perry as the case against them is just too strong and Green intends on strengthening it further. Green uses a very chilling lexis in his opening statement using words such as “fateful”, “mercy”, “doomed” and “corpses”. This just enforces his case and reminds people of what a terrible crime Perry and Dick committed. He builds up what they did and them as people to be very scary and haunting so the jury want them to face the death penalty. The pivotal word “but” is used once again at the beginning of the third paragraph, it moves his prosecution speech along so that he can move onto the next persuasive argument. He uses a declarative sentence, “That is the law”, as it’s a sharp yet simple reminder to the jury, in case they were having other thoughts on the outcome of the trial other than death. He describes the murders to be “strange and ferocious”, highlighting that they were quite random and that the Clutters had done nothing against Dick and Perry, they were innocent. Green says “four of your fellow citizens”, he is using...

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