In Cold Blood by Truman Capote?

Question

Does anybody know how much violence, sex and profanity it contains? My daughter will be assigned that book in English, and I'm not sure I want her to read it. I'm planning to read it for myself to make sure, but any input I can get would be good.

I've gotten through reading the book for myself. Here's what I found:

Profanity and Other Derogatory Language
(This does not include references to God and Jesus Christ in a religious context, which was fairly common, or the use of the word ‘******’ to mean a bundle of sticks.)

Christ16
D***16
G** D****17
S***1
My God2
Lord5
H***22
Faggot1
Chink2
Queer2
B****1
Nuts1
Jesus8
N*****13
Bastard15
Gosh1
Darn4
Bull or Bull****2
SOB9

Sexual Content

* “Gorgeous piece of butt”
* Tattoo of ‘bosomy nudes’
* Reference to the female victims as ‘not sexually molested.’
* "Sexual episodes of a strange and stealthy nature had occurred.”
* "…spent the night in a San Luis Potosi brothel.”
* “He was always lying there buck naked.”
* Character presented with a sketchbook of nude studies
* “…an erotic netsuke bought in Kyoto…”
* A sergeant getting angry with a character for refusing to “roll over,” in context referring to consenting to homosexual acts.
* One of the murderers is described as ‘making love’ to Inez, a prostitute.
* Mexican “amorous conquests”
* A character is described as having ‘sexual interest in female children,’ and ‘pedophilic tendencies,’ and stalks one young girl while referring to ‘eight or nine others’ that he had caught in previous cities.
* Hired prostitutes.
* “I’m gonna bust that little girl,” referring to raping one of the murder victims.

* A woman is described as ‘entertaining sailors’ when her husband left town.
* Multiple references to bed-wetting, including being punished by a nun who put ‘ointment on my penis’ that burned painfully.
* “I told the boys that I’d had a lot of girls.”
* A character is described as “sexually inadequate” with “a history of sexual inhibition.”
* A woman takes the murderers to her room and “…she let them make love to her.”
* “I’ve seen a girl, and her no more than fourteen, take on three guys at the same time and give them all their money’s worth.”
* A boy is strangled for rejecting homosexual advances.
* The kidnapping, rape and torture of a young woman
* A man is stabbed to death in prison by a man who is fighting over the ‘affection’ of a third man.

Multiple references to a ‘colored man’ beaten to death with a bicycle chain
“Mr. Clutter’s shattered skull”
“Boy, we sure splattered him.”
A child beaten with a flashlight until the flashlight breaks
A child held underwater, nearly to the point of drowning
A person drowned in a toilet bowl
Domestic violence
A mutilated and dismembered prostitute
A boy strangled for rejecting homosexual advances
A boy bludgeoned to death and a nine-year-old girl drowned
The kidnapping, rape, and torture of a young woman
A man is stabbed to death in prison by a man who is fighting over the ‘affection’ of a third man.
Other prisoners executed by hanging, and discussion between the prisoners of the different methods of execution.

Answer 1

This one will be violent, as the destruction of the Clutter family is detailed

Answer 2

Compared to what the kids now hear and see on the radio, tv, videos, games, movies, etc, it is no big deal. My 18 yr. and I were discussing this the other day. Of course it all depends on how old your daughter is. Anything over 13 and I'm sure she can handle it. You might be surprised at how much she already knows and sees.

Answer 3

I just went onto Amazon, and according to some of the reviews, it is an excellent read. It does not speak of the content as for a child (I'm not sure how old your daughter is). You may want to go to Amazon.com and read through the reviews, there are many.

Answer 4

It depends on your daughter's age. I'm 15 and I read it for English and I think that she'll be able to handle it if she's around my age level. There is some violence and language, but not enough to get into a dizzy about.

Answer 5

It does detail the murders of an entire family and the troubled upbringing of two murderers. Probably classifies as violent, I'd say.

Answer 6

well, how old is ur daughter? As far as i can see, this book had a lot of boundraries crossed with exceptional narration of the degradation of human mind. Truman exposes the mind and feelings of these two criminals and its not a st8 forward reporting.