Perry Smith In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Perry Smith was a cold-blooded killer, but if his experiences in life had changed, he could've ended up with a completely different life. Throughout Truman Capote's novel, In Cold Blood, the readers can learn more about the killers through their backstories. Perry Smith was deprived of the opportunity to live a good life because he was mistreated in his childhood, manipulated by caregivers or friends, and was unfairly sentenced to death. The trauma that Perry Smith experienced in his life contributed to who he eventually became. Perry Smith was mistreated in his childhood. For example, his parents, the people who were supposed to love and care for him, did not teach him the feeling of unconditional love and instead taught him the feeling of hate. His father had abandoned him and his mother loved alcohol more than him: “.Perry had on

Every child needs to be led in the right direction and is often influenced by the path their parents want for them. Perry’s father, allowing him to never return to school, deprived him of a basic education that all children deserve. Perry remarks, “‘I finished the third grade,’ Perry recalled. Which was the finish. I never went back” (Capote 132). Caregivers and friends manipulated Perry Smith. For instance, when Perry Smith was sent away to live in the orphanage, the nurse, a woman who was supposed to care for him, belittled him. She looked so down upon him that she even went as far as to make racist remarks: “There was this one nurse, she used to call me ‘nigger’ and say there wasn't any difference between niggers and Indians” (Capote 132). As well as Dick, a person for a while Perry considered to be one of his closest friends, constantly putting on a facade so Perry would trust him. Capote wrote, “...and his smile was a skillful