Foreshadowing

Capote points out many clues for the family to realize that something dreadful is about to happen to them. It begins when Mr. Clutter takes out a forty-thousand-dollar life insurance policy, which ends up paying double the indemnity in the case of murder. This happens the day before he is murdered in his home. Also, Mr. Clutter doesn’t carry cash and always seems to pay with check which should give the killers a reason to realize that there isn’t going to be money in the house. Then Mrs. Clutter also has a foreshadowing when Capote explains, “A bookmark lay between its pages (the bible)… ‘Take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time is,’”. The verse explains to cherish the days you have because you never know when you could never see another day. Obviously this is giving a point that the family is going to be killed. Throughout the chapters Capote continually mentions how the family won’t see another day soon. Even the murders, Dick and Perry, are forewarned when Perry rips the glove he is about to murder the family with. The role of foreshadowing seems to play a major role in the first part of Capote’s story.