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Free Will In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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No matter how we try to change our situation or better ourselves in society, variables will obstruct the path we choose. One cannot take control of everything that surrounds us as fate decides what happens to us. In Cold Blood by Truman Capote explains the murder of the Clutter family in the quiet town of Holcomb, Kansas. The murderers, Richard (Dick) Hickock and Perry Smith, try to escape the consequences of their actions, believing that they can get away with what they did. The story tells what the murderers were thinking after and before they committed the crime and their various interactions. Hickock and Smith’s mindset are explained throughout their journey as they try to evade an inevitable fate. The theme that people cannot always control …show more content…

However, once the murder of the family occurs, everything changes. The author says, “Once a thing is set to happen, all you can do is hope it won’t. Or will- depending. As long as you live there’s always something waiting, and even if it’s bad, and you know it’s bad, what can you do? You can’t stop living.” (Chapter 2 page 95). The quote implies that once you do something, it cannot be in one’s control to stop an event from happening. The course of events plays out, which cannot be tampered with, no matter how we try to set things right. The murderers cannot prevent their inexorable fate of death for their actions. When Smith is in Mr. Clutter’s home, he says “I didn’t want to harm the man. I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.” (Chapter 2 page 102). Smith knows that his actions are inhumane and respects the Clutters, but even if he shows sympathy, there won’t be any escape to what he has done. There was no going back as his fate had already been put into stone as the murder was committed. When the criminals are caught they express that if they had done this again they would not have changed it, since the end result would have been the same (Chapter 8 page 220). They were both tethered to their malicious crime lives which they could not

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