The Book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a captivating nonfiction novel retelling of the Clutter family murder. This book is split into four parts with parallel narratives which share an array of perspectives such as, Perry Smith and Dick Hickhock, the two murderers. The Author Truman Capote uses the characterization of Perry to force the audience to empathize with him to ultimately convey that the perception of evil is subjective. Perry is described as an arrogant man who was overly concerned with his looks, this is due to the fact of his motorcycle accident, his abuse through his childhood, and/or his time in prison. Perry was very self conscious of his looks (mainly his legs) as the book states, “Perry,too, had been maimed, and his injuries …show more content…
Capote also includes Perry's family life within the book stating, “Look at his family!... Mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit…Barbra, had entered ordinary life… Fern the other daughter, jumped out of a window… the older boy-- Jimmy, who had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself the next.” (Capote 110-111) Perry was never given a fair chance to thrive at life through his childhood. Truman uses this to explain why Perry is the way he is. Capote illustrates the worst of Perry's life to defend Perry’s as a person apart from his actions. Lastly Capote posses Perry as human through his hopes from a better life, as illustrated in the text, “...the dream of drifting downward through strange waters, of plunging toward a green sea-dusk, sliding past the scaly, savage-eyed protectors of a ship’s