Examples Of Toxic Masculinity In In Cold Blood

Lisa Parsons
Mr. Boyce
English IV - Block E
12 January 2023
In Cold Blood Essay: Prompt #1
The term toxic masculinity took its place in the English vocabulary in the 1980s and fits the description of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock like a glove. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood follows the story of these two men with shattered egos who make it everyone else’s problem. The Clutters, the victims of Dick and Perry’s ego depletion, were not meant to be destined to the fate that Dick and Perry assign to them. The adults in Perry’s childhood turning a blind eye to the abuse he faced, and Dick’s pedophilia, which is swept under the rug, atop many more aspects of these men indicate one thing. It can be said that Dick and Perry were simply products of their

Both Dick and Perry had neglected signs in their childhood that they would lead this life of violence. Perry’s bed wetting after his father abandons him and “not long afterward [his] mother put[s him] to stay in a Catholic orphanage. The one where the Black Widows were always at [him]. Hitting [him]. Because of wetting the bed” (132). The bed-wetting is a trauma response and a concerning sign of the abandonment he faces which is only met with abuse because of the idea that men need to toughen up and compartmentalize. His time in the orphanages got so bad that he woke up in the middle of the night to a nun with “a flashlight,... hit[ting him]… And when the flashlight broke, she went on hitting [him] in the dark’”(92). Things like his snake and bird dream indicate the mental illness that is budding in his mind, that adults responsible for him left unaddressed because of societal expectations. His hate for the world began when his trauma was not dealt with and instead responded with more. Although Dick had a loving family who saw him as a child who could do no wrong, Capote deduces from “[o]ne [neighboring] farmer’s wife [who] said ‘Dick Hickock! Don’t talk to me about Dick Hickock! If ever I met the devil! Steal? Steal the weights off a dead man’s eyes!... Dick would’ve gone to jail more times than you can count, except nobody around here ever wanted to prosecute. Out of respect

The inability to blame men stems from a sense of toxic masculinity and infatuation in our society with the idea that men can do no wrong; it is someone else who makes them act a certain way. The ability of men to use this toxic structure to their advantage, at the disadvantage of themselves and the women in their lives is a glaring detail in the novel that is often overlooked because society is conditioned to overlook it. The entirety of In Cold Blood embodies how men are not to blame for their actions but it is others’ fault for making them a certain way. The publication of such a novel is irresponsible of Capote as it perpetuates this dangerous narrative that has for far too long plagued our societal structure and the role of man and masculinity in