Cultural Alienation: In Cold Blood

Abstract

“If the protagonist of the book can be said to be our own culture (and this does not seem so far fetched, as Kansas is in many ways at the cultural as well as geographical heart of the nation), we see still another characteristic of Greek drama—the nobility of the hero, his pride, and his tragic flaw. The Clutter family clearly embody the culture at its self-identified best, self-made, hard working, civic minded, helpful to others. And the murderers clearly show us the flaw.”