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Nature Vs. Nurture Conflict In Truman Copote's In Cold Blood

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How do we become who we are today? Are we born this way, or are we slowly transformed by the world around us? This controversy is most often recognized as the nature verses nurture conflict. Some people believe that it is strictly genes that affects our ways of life, others believe that it is the environment that affects us. Though genetics makes us who we are genetically, the environment in which we are raised directly shapes our life. According to John Watson, one of the strongest psychologists who propose environmental side, once said that he could train baby to become any type of specialist Watson wanted. He stated that he could train him to be such regardless of the child's potentialities, talents and race. Infants are shaped by every …show more content…

Copote uses this quote to descried Perry. "Nonetheless, he found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger-with, rather a measure of sympathy-for Perry Smith's life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another." (246) Perry’s mental condition is a result of a traumatic childhood. It was understandable to even a KBI agent that Perry’s background is what drove him to commit murder. Therefore, it is apparent that Perry’s lack of a nurturing family and childhood caused him to commit crimes, rather than his own human …show more content…

However, the development of mental illnesses is not entirely genetic” (GoodTherapy.org). With metal illnesses, just because you have the genes does not mean you will get the illness. It has to be sparked by a real life event. That’s why based of a twin study, one twin can have bipolar and the other may not because one twin did not have the same sparking experience the other one did. The environment in which we grow up can greatly affect our metal state along with our

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In the novel In Cold Blood, Truman Capote explores aspects of Perry Smiths and Richard Hickocks childhoods that may have affected their psychology and lead to the 1959 Clutter family murder. The fact that Truman Capote included these memories and old letters from their past was to show that he thought it played a part in the greater problem although he does not directly say that. He gives the reader the choice to decide for themselves, whether they think the awful childhoods of the main characters were the reasons they thought it was acceptable to murder a family in their own home in cold blood, or weather it was completely and fully their choice to commit this crime. From the way the writer describes Smiths past, it gives the reader the

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879 Words | 4 Pages

In Cold Blood is a novel that follows the story of the four Clutter’s and their murder. It takes place in Holcomb, Kansas where they were killed by two men. These two men initially get away, but are then caught later after many adventures. The two men are identified as Perry and Dick. It is seen that they murdered the Clutter’s without any motive or harsh feelings towards them.

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758 Words | 4 Pages

Everyone is born with the capability to do evil, however, the events and environment in our lives shape our psyche to such an irrefutably extreme extent that they define our character and our conscience, redefining what we see as right and wrong. Perry is very sensitive by nature due to his family’s troubles and his father’s behavior. The pressure that Perry feels to impress Dick, who he makes into a faux father figure, combined with the weight of his past push him to the breaking point which happens to be the Clutter murders. Perry was bound by his experience, he could never fully escape the horrors of his childhood as they were the limits of his apprehension. Regardless of Perry’s traumatic childhood, justice must be equally upheld to everyone, despite the differences in the ways we were raised.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

A psychopath created by years of abuse and feeling nothing but hatred towards so many, Perry’s chances of becoming a murderer was inescapable. “... it is only people like Perry, ‘isolated’ and ‘animal’, who are driven by a lonely search for distant ‘mirages’ (Conniff 82). What this means is, psychopaths like Perry Smith kill because they are seeing things that others do not, they see

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514 Words | 3 Pages

He spends his life trying to stray away from his vices, trying to take a step towards a stable and happy life but due to his mental instability and impulsive actions, can never stray from that. There is a lack of connection between Perry’s wants and desires and his actions. Perry Smith is a mentally ill man with a sinister disposition, that without a therapist or any form of treatment, is reckless and loose in a world where murder can be as simple as a gentle pull of an index finger. Perry Smith could be a good person but buried in his illness, only glimmers of the kinder parts of his soul shown through periodically. The contradictory nature of Perry Smith and battle between good and bad throughout the novel is what makes him the protagonist.

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732 Words | 3 Pages

Perry had faced many people leaving and dying. His brother Jimmy had killed himself and even his mother died. The book In Cold Blood says, “By now, over the years, that was all I had left me. Jimmy a suicide. Fern out the window.

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1090 Words | 5 Pages

Some people might say people inherit traits from their parents, and some say they learn them based on an upbringing, but In Truman Capote’s account of the brutal murders of the clutter family in In Cold Blood, he uses the argument of Nature vs. Nurture to further explain the life behind murderer, Perry Smith. After hearing the accounts of the brutal murders, Capote goes on to explain the story behind both Perry and Dick’s lives, But Perry’s childhood stands out more. After being abandoned, beaten, and left to survive alone, Perry’s cards were stacked against him. By showing the complexity of criminals, Capote uses Perry to show the example of a non-nurturing childhood creating a person capable of murder.

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763 Words | 4 Pages

When it comes to creating a murderer, it contributes more to the nurture side of the long winded psychology debate. Throughout the course of the story, the reader gets to dive into Dick and Perry’s mindset, see what they are thinking and how they feel about certain subjects. When it comes to making a murderer, it all comes down to how that person was raised. This can play a huge part in someone’s life, weather they have good parents who are involved with their life, or if they’re like Perry, whose parents weren’t involved at all.

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515 Words | 3 Pages

In addition, he had a sister and two other brothers who committed suicide as he grew up. As we look back at his childhood, we can see that Perry represents everything it means to come from a broken family and that his bad childhood deprived from relating to people in a positive way. Maybe Perry was the murder of this malicious act, but as a reader, it was troublesome to not feel sympathy for a person who was deprived of living a happy

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While most would focus on the victims of the case, Capote focuses on the background of the killers and their reasoning behind committing crimes. Sympathy was demonstrated, specifically for Perry, when arrested. Capote, “found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger - with, rather, a measure of sympathy - for Perry Smith's life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another'' (Capote 246). While many would feel Dick and Perry deserved to die, Capote has an unpopular perspective by showing sympathy for the killers based on their past. Capote creates a sympathetic tone towards Perry and creates disputable topics about the flawed justice system.

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1118 Words | 5 Pages

Similarly, in the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, this question is raised when two outsiders come to the small town of Holcomb and brutally murder an endearing Kansas family. People like the character Perry from the novel In Cold Blood, are not born criminals, they are made into criminals because their physical, safety, and social needs were not met so they can never reach self-actualization and never become civilized humans. According to Michael Jones, author of “Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs

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1445 Words | 6 Pages

Throughout the book, Perry is genuinely the cold-blooded killer, and the reader 's view him that way. While in interrogation, Dick confessed that “ Perry Smith killed the Clutters... It was Perry” (Capote 230). At this point, the audience doesn’t know if they believe that Perry killed all four or if Perry killed two and Dick killed two. While talking in the interrogation room, Dewey mentioned to Perry that “Hickock [thought of Perry as] a natural born killer.

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573 Words | 3 Pages

Although he ended up being one of the murderers of the Clutter family, the readers often felt sorry for him. In the beginning of the novel the reader finds out that Perry was actually very nervous about committing the crime, he and Dick were on the road to do. Capote made it seem like Perry

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837 Words | 4 Pages

Truman Capote uses variety of language devices such as diction, similes and symbolism to vividly develop Perry Smith in his novel In Cold Blood. Truman Capote uses diction to develop Perry Smith’s character. When Perry explains what happened that night at the Clutter family home, he tells agent Alvin Dewey about his moment with Nancy Clutter. " [He] pulled up the covers, tucked her in till just her head showed…" the use of ‘tucked her in’ expresses a calm and cozy tone which contrasts with the situation. This implies that even though Perry will murder her in cold blood, he still is considerate enough to make her feel at home. "

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1483 Words | 6 Pages

Perry’s erratic spontaneous outbursts is what caused him to go through with the murders and slit Mr. Clutter’s throat which put him on the killing frenzy that ended the rest of the Clutters lives. Capote highlights Perry’s sociopathic tendencies by comparing them to that of Dicks Psychopathic tendencies which exemplifies how when put together they are at each others fault for the

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