Chapter 1: The Last To See Them Alive

Part 1, Chapter 1: The Last To See Them Alive

The beginning of the chapter establishes the scene - a village in Holcomb in Western Kansas, 70 miles east from the border of Colorado. 

The residents' accents are described as "barbed with a prairie twang". 

• The adjective "barbed" denotes a sharp item (such as barbed wire). 
• The noun prairie denotes a large open space (such as grassland or deserts). 
• The noun "twang" denotes a nasal characteristic connoting somebody's dialect.

Capote uses symbolism to denote class - especially in relation to the men. He also uses asyndetic listing to describe the scene as a whole, to invoke imagery in the reader's head. He describes the men's attire denoting "many of them wearing narrow frontier trousers, Stetsons (which symbolised manhood as well as freedom) and high heeled boots with pointed toes (heels could connote status between the men).