Previous
Herb Clutter
Wife of Herb Clutter, mother of Eveanna Jarchow, Beverly English, Nancy Clutter, and Kenyon Clutter. Murdered by Perry Smith and Dick Hickok. Bonnie is a “nervous” woman who has a history of post-partum depression and other mental illnesses, all of which were treated with little to no success. Her mental illnesses appear to make difficult her relationships with her husband and children.
Bonnie Clutter Quotes in In Cold Blood
The In Cold Blood quotes below are all either spoken by Bonnie Clutter or refer to Bonnie Clutter. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 1 Quotes
At the time, not a soul in sleeping Holcomb heard them – four shotgun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In Cold Blood opens by describing a serene and pastoral town in which salt-of-the-earth Kansans raise families and livestock in a religious and warm community. Capote sets up this image of paradise only to dash it with the description of the shotgun blasts. In a way, this opening mirrors the experience of reading the whole book; Capote repeatedly presents readers with idyllic scenes of American life and traditionally successful characters only to tell us afterwards that everything is darker and more complicated than it initially appears. This quotation also sets in motion the unspooling of the plot. By revealing that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaq
Always certain of what he wanted from the world, Mr. Clutter had in large measure obtained it…[H]e wore a plain gold band, which was the symbol…of his marriage to the person he had wished to marry…She had given him four children – a trio of daughters and a son.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This quotation is an example, like the opening of the book, of Capote building up a character only to later dash the reader's expectations. In this description, Herb Clutter seems to embody the achievement of the American dream. He knew what he wanted and he got it; he's married, and he has lovely children and a successful farm. In this moment, readers get the sense that Herb must have been idyllically fulfilled by his rich life. Because we already know that he was murdered, this description seems tragic, but we don't know yet that it is also misleading. In the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Comm
Little things really belong to you…They don’t have to be left behind. You can carry them in a shoebox.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
This is a moment in which readers are allowed, finally, to see beyond the perfect Clutter facade. Bonnie Clutter is revealed to be a strange and unhappy woman who speaks of her fatigue and her feeling of irrelevance, since she believes her children don't need her anymore. Capote then allows readers a glimpse into her past—from her happy childhood through her adult life, which has been riddled by mental health troubles. In this heartbreaking statement, Bonnie is alluding to the fact that she can take her beloved small objects with her to the hospital when she goes. Bonnie's history shows Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Vol
Part 2 Quotes
How was it possible that such effort, such plain virtue, could overnight be reduced to this – smoke, thinning as it rose and was received by the big, annihilating sky?
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this moving passage, Herb Clutter's friends have come to his farm to clean the crime scene and burn all the items that were ruined by blood. Here, Andy Erhart, who watched Herb work his way up from humble origins to professional and familial success, feels hopeless before the bonfire because of what it symbolizes to him. To Erhart (who is, in some sense, a proxy for the reader), Herb did everything right--he worked hard and achieved his goals. Erhart doesn't understand, then, how it could all be taken from Herb so quickly and senselessly. To Erhart, the bonfire is Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde eni
Nancy wore her dress of cherry-red velvet, her brother a bright plaid shirt; the parents were more sedately attired, Mr. Clutter in navy-blue flannel, his wife in navy-blue crepe; and – and it was this, especially, that lent the scene an awful aura – the head of each was completely encased in cotton, a swollen cocoon twice the size of an ordinary blown-up balloon, and the cotton, because it had been sprayed with a glossy substance, twinkled like Christmas-tree snow.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
In this eerie passage, Nancy's friend and boyfriend are viewing the bodies of the Clutter family at the funeral home. Their appearance is described in an almost absurdist way--they are each carefully dressed in beautiful clothes, but their heads (where each was shot) are encased in huge swabs of cotton that "twinkled like...snow." Here, Capote is drawing out an image that points to the contradictions and absurdities of the American dream. There is something aspirational in the fancy clothes that the Clutters wear, but, as their cotton-encased heads show, they have nothing left to aspire to. In a way, this Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium e
Part 3 Quotes
Perry Smith killed the Clutters…. It was Perry. I couldn’t stop him. He killed them all.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Throughout the book, Dick is portrayed as the more cold-blooded of the two killers due to his lack of remorse and kindness. When presented with an evidence photograph of a bloody footprint and told of all the murder charges he is facing, Dick does not keep to his word that he and Perry will tell the same story to police interrogators, and instead he blames the killings on Perry. This further cements the reader's negative opinion of Dick, as he is essentially attempting to sacrifice his friend, who he dragged into the killings in the first place, in order to Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. N
Part 4 Quotes
Soldiers don’t lose much sleep. They murder, and get medals for doing it. The good people of Kansas want to murder me – and some hangman will be glad to get the work. It’s easy to kill – a lot easier than passing a bad check. Just remember: I only knew the Clutters maybe an hour. If I’d really known them, I guess I’d feel different. I don’t think I could live with myself. But the way it was, it was like picking targets off in a shooting gallery.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
At this point in the story, Perry is beginning to unravel psychologically, so his words cannot be considered reliable. However, in a sense, this passage seems to be one of the most honest in the book. It would have been easy for Perry to play up his moral conflict (evident in his efforts to make the Clutters comfortable before their deaths, his questioning whether he and Dick are normal if they're capable of an act like that, or his thinking of Nancy Clutter on her birthday) and earn the sympathy of his Christian friend, but instead he presents himself in Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetu
Get the entire In Cold Blood LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Bonnie Clutter Character Timeline in In Cold Blood
The timeline below shows where the character Bonnie Clutter appears in In Cold Blood. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1: The Last to See Them Alive
Herb’s wife, Bonnie Clutter, is introduced. She is a “nervous” woman who throughout her life has suffered from...
(full context)
...his wife is sleeping upstairs, in Eveanna’s former bedroom. It is revealed that Herb and Bonnie haven’t slept in the same bed for several years. The house he lives in –...
(full context)
...recalls the happy early days of his marriage, when he used to picnic there with Bonnie and the children.
(full context)
...grouchiness has nothing to do with Bobby. Sue, who knows Nancy very well, asks if Bonnie’s the source of the trouble. Nancy brushes this suggestion off, but secretly wonders whether Sue...
(full context)
...was able to help. Jolene wants to eat the pie right away, offering pieces to Bonnie and Nancy. They refuse – Nancy has to go help tutor another neighborhood girl, and...
(full context)
Bonnie takes Jolene into the dining room, where she keeps an assortment of miniatures on display....
(full context)
Bonnie, alone in the house, decides to go to back to bed – “the bed she...
(full context)
...at point-blank range, but strangely enough she’s also been tucked into bed. They then discover Bonnie’s body in Eveanna’s room. Her hands have been tied in front of her, “so that...
(full context)
Part 2: Persons Unknown
...a press conference, Alvin reveals the basic facts of the case, and reveals that neither Bonnie nor Nancy had been “sexually molested.” The agents follow a number of leads, but have...
(full context)
...town for the funeral. The day the last of the Clutter clan left Garden City, Bonnie’s brother Howard Fox ran a letter in the Garden City Telegram asking that the locals...
(full context)
