Character Analysis- In Cold Blood In the novel In Cold Blood, Perry Smith, a dynamic antagonist with a cruel past, acts upon his built up resentment when he commits the vicious murders of the Clutter family. Although he did not receive any education exceeding the third grade, he wished to further his knowledge and eventually developed a deep love for literary art as well as music. As a child, Perry and his siblings were dragged off to California by his mother, a year before his parents divorced. There, he was consistently in trouble because he had “no rule or discipline, or anyone to show [him] right from wrong”. In and out of orphanages after his parent’s divorce, he was regularly beaten by the nuns for wetting the bed, a childlike