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Parental Influence In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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The parental influence the child receives as well as their childhood in general is a key factor on how and who they turn out to be when they grow up. In Cold Blood written by Truman Capote, one of the murderers, Perry Smith had gone through a very rough childhood. His mother, a drunk, his brother Jimmy has killed himself, he was put into an orphanage and abused by nuns. None of this is ideal for how a child should be treated. The poor parental impact and childhood Perry faced resulted in his outrageous behavior of killing the Clutter family. Nonetheless if Perry got the right childhood he needed and deserved he would not have become a murderer. When growing up, all children depend on their parents for everything. However Perry Smith faced …show more content…

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. My mother died. Been dead eight years” (Capote 138). The leaving of all these people affected the way of Perry’s living drastically. Even though these deaths to him were a lot he still faced many more. Perry was denied access to school by his father. In the book it says “You think I like myself? Oh, the man I could have been! But that bastard never gave me a chance. He wouldn't let me go to school. O.K. O.K. I was a bad kid. But the time came I begged to go to school” (Capote 132). School is a very important aspect in a childlife, school teaches children the things in life that they will need to have a successful life. Without attending school it affects Perry a lot. He did not learn basic skills or anything, he was raised basically by himself. Which does not help him when it comes down to who he has become. Perry has been mistreated throughout his life especially at the time when he was in an orphanage. The book says he was, “hating a half-breed child living in a California orphanage run by nuns—shrouded disciplinarians who whipped him for wetting his bed” (Capote 93). At the young age of seven he

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In Cold Blood, written by Truman Capote in 1966 tells the story of the murder of a prominent family in 60’s Kansas. Capote traveled to the small town of Holcomb, and befriended many of the townsfolk and the detectives involved in the trial to tell the story of a violent event that shaped this community for the decade until the eventual conviction and execution of the killers. Because of information being told, Capote makes the choice of writing his novel as if it were a news report. This journalistic structure and word choice helps to establish the serious and dark tone of the novel.

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