In Cold Blood One of the most debated subjects in history is nurture vs. nature. Many people claim nature because of our lineage leading back to the monkey. Others argue nurture, claiming it doesn’t matter where you come from it is how you are raised. In cold blood is a non-fictional book, for the most part, and it is about how two men, Dick and Perry, kill the Clutter family. Throughout the book one is taken on a ride, figuring out the motive, who, what, where and how. As of now we will be learning is if either nurture or nature effected Dick’s or Perry’s lives. Nurture: to care for and encourage the growth of, also caring for and encouraging the growth of someone or something. Perry had neither a comforting nor caring childhood, an abusive …show more content…
All of Perry’s siblings were sent to school and got enough food to eat every night. ‘”Please, Bobo. Please listen. You think I like myself? But that bastard never gave me a chance. He wouldn’t let me go to school…I was a bad kid…Every damn one of you go an education. Everybody but me. And I hate you, all of you-Dad and everyone’…if it meant cleaning up Mama’s drunken vomit, if it meant never anything nice to wear or enough to eat” (185). Perry, knowing he was a bad kid, knew that he could have been a better man if his father had sent him to school. With all this in mind, Perry could of have had a better future laid out for him if he had been given a better, more supporting, nurturing …show more content…
As said by Shoomp “…Dick has what his prison psychiatrist suggests is an attachment disorder (among a zillion other problems.) He can’t experience any sense of emotional connection to another person or have concern for the effect of his actions on anyone else. This lets him do what he does without being particularly bothered by it”. Dick’s mental state could have easily influenced his dark personality and shallow heartedness. “the child accepted the gift, whereupon Dick smiled and winked at her. He was sorry he felt as he did about her, for his sexual interest in female children was a failing of which he was “secretly ashamed”—a secret he’d not confessed to anyone and hoped no one suspected.” Dick, much like Perry, knew that there was something wrong with him, that he wasn’t normal. Due to Dick’s mental issue he never connected with people well after that, it was defiantly nature that came into play during Dick’s
“Nature is the consists of the genetic material that a person inherits from their parents,” and “Nature refers to your experiences.” In the book In Cold Blood in stated that Dick wanted to go to college to be an engineer, but his parents couldn’t afford it. So in that case he tried to live above his means and acquired a great deal of debt, he changed jobs often to try to make more money to pay for the things he wanted. After a while Dick started making very bad decisions that reflected bad on his appearance, he started gambling, cheating on his wife and even writing bad checks after a car accident that had happened on the year 1950. There was no clear visual on whether nature or nurture cased Dick to become a violent criminal.
Some can have a great childhood while others like Perry can have a miserable and harsh childhood. The author successfully proves this by showing the contrast in the childhood of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. The author also presents that Perry had a conscience at some points of his life. He said he hated people who can’t control themselves when Dick wanted to rape Nancy. But him being so haunted by his demons caused him to kill not only an unknown person in Las Vegas but kill a family of 4 who just “happened to be there”.
Although Dick is the almost forgotten character beside Perry, he is veiwed more in context towards the end of the book; therefore even murderes who are sentenced to dealth are still people worth mourning. Capote uses discription to prove of the differences of the cells that Dick and Perry were placed in. First he includes how perry’s cell is like, “... Perry lured one off a branch onto the window silll… it was a male squirrle...soon settled down, appparently content to share his friend’s captivity”(Capote 254). Perry is still the main focus, he makes friends witha squirrel.
As soon as Dick saw that the boy needed to be saved, he ran to him immediately with no hesitation even though he knew it was dangerous and without thinking of any potential personal gain (Alger 248). After he saved the young boy, the boy’s father later offered Dick a job
Capote portrays only one of these two seemingly distinct characters (Perry) in a way that the reader feels the need to relate to and even sympathize with him. One can be taken aback by such an attachment to a murderer. This is not surprising as the author uses his compassionate diction to manipulate the reader’s emotions with a use of pathos, the appeal to emotions. At one point Capote goes as far as to write that “Smith’s life had been no bed of roses,” (Capote 245) attempting to have the readers relate to Perry. On the other hand, Capote has Dick say this about himself: “Deal me out, baby, I’m a normal” (Capote 116).
While Perry is mortified that he and Dick could commit such a gruesome crime, Dick couldn’t care less. All Dick is worried about is how odd Perry is. Because of how quick Perry’s mood could change, Dick thought he was “spooky as hell.” Now, Perry wasn’t your average run of the mill man. He still wets the bed, cries in his sleep, and “could slide into a fury ‘quicker than ten drunk Indians’”.
Nature versus nurture is one of the most controversial debates in contemporary psychology. The debate concerning whether or not humans are born with the preset characteristics that will shape lives for years to come or whether actions are a result of the events and the environment that pave the way for our behavioral characteristics. Capote’s “In Cold Blood” gives the audience a detailed look into the upbringing of the character Perry Smith, creating a sympathetic outlook towards his past and attempting to bring a sense of understanding as to how a seemingly harmless young man could brutally murder four innocent people. In the case of Perry Smith, nurture was the cause of his actions in regards to the Clutter family murders.
Subsequently, Capote continues to mention Perry’s awful childhood throughout the book, and
Although Perry is responsible for the murder of four innocent people, Perry’s actions do not reflect on who he is as a person because he is easily influenced, therefore; showing how easily people can be pressured into doing something they would not typically do. Dick, a violent, cold-hearted, manipulator, has molded Perry into the person he is today. As Perry is a follower, Dick has taken advantage of that by turning Perry into the cold-blooded killer he is today. Capote displays Dick’s manipulation of Perry through symbolism to make evident that while Perry did pull the trigger on four innocent people, although the fault does not entirely lay on him, as he was taken advantage of by Dick.
He is portrayed as a mastermind in the cold-blooded killing of the Clutters family, a man with little respect for the lives of others, which can be seen through Dick’s expression before the murder of the Clutters when he converses Perry, “We’re gonna go in there and splatter those walls with hair” (Capote 234). This sudden tone shift enables Capote to depict Dick as a cruel and immoral character. Dick’s lack of empathy and concern for other people beside himself allow him to commit crimes without remorse, which is in contrast to Perry’s moral contemplation after each bad actions they committed. Moreover, Dick is represented as the true criminal with evident motives in murdering the Clutters, while Perry is seen as a vulnerable victim who depends on Dick for validation and acceptance, something in which Dick happily provides in order to manipulate Perry, as Capote writes, “Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, ‘a natural born killer,’—absolutely sane but conscienceless, and capable of dealing with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows. It was Dick's theory that such a gift could, under his supervision, be profitably exploited” (Capote 205).
Dick did not have any second thoughts about the murder. He had firmly wanted to walk-in and kill the Clutter family despite their innocence. Dick viewed the Clutters’ as an opportunity that was going to make him rich. There was not any
During his interrogation, Dick reflects on his actions and comes to the realization that “‘…the main reason I went to there was not to rob them but to rape the girl… I did not
In the fourth section of In Cold Blood, Capote argues that Perry is a cold blooded killer and Dick is just as guilty. Capote describes Perry as “very high” on the night of the murder. By the time he was in jail, Capote referred to him as “unusually troubled” and “lost”. When Perry admitted to the murder of the four Clutter’s, his reasoning was to spare Mrs. Hickock’s feelings, not to tell the truth. Perry’s background makes him seem damaged and “changed”, as he experienced various problems in adolescence; his “psychotic” ways are even thought to be true by a psychiatrist in court.
One of the most debated topics throughout the world is nature versus nurture. When psychologists debate this topic, they are studying what influences a person’s personal development. Some say that a person’s nature influences personal development while others say a person’s nurture influences personal development. A lot of people spend time contemplating which one actually does the influencing but what some do not realize is that, perhaps, both nature and nurture help shape a person’s personal development. One topic that comes up quite often is whether or not a person is born a criminal.
It is pretty hard to unpack the influences in my life that have made me into the person I am today in a two-page paper. However, after thinking about it for a long time I could see a pattern of certain influences that kept coming up when I thought about who I am today and what made me into the person I am. After several unsuccessful attempts to rank the influences based on importance I decided merge them into two major themes. If I was to tell a complete stranger what the source of my skills, principles, and attitudes were; I would have to say they are attributed to my family and my extracurricular activities. These may seem like 2 very broad categories, but at the end of the day they are what shaped me into the person I am today.