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Perry Smith In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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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 …show more content…

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

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Truman Capote was a very talented writer, and he always knew the perfect ways to portray each character in all of his books. In his book In Cold Blood, Capote interviewed both of the killers, but he knew that there was something about Perry Smith. Throughout the whole book, he would be constantly trying to figure him out and why he did what he did. Throughout the book, Capote uses the technique sympathy to portray Perry.

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In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, Dick and Perry are dynamically changing companions each with their own motives and background that defines their actions. These key descriptions and details are revealed through the tones and overarching atmospheres when focusing on the characters. Capote uses tones and themes to characterize the killers Dick and Perry as resenting and bitter as well as having opposing views. The killers derive their bitterness from the dark and helpless tone Capote uses.

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In Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” Dick and Perry have murdered the Clutter family and are on their way to Mexico. In this passage, Dick makes an astounding statement. In the passage, Dick claims that he’s “a normal” but that is far from the truth. He is a conniving, manipulative son of a bitch who thinks he’s normal in comparison to Perry.

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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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Perry Smith's actions in Truman Capote's "In Cold Blood" paint a chilling portrait of a true monster. In the planning and execution of the Clutter family murder, Perry's capacity for pure evil is unmistakable. As Capote vividly describes, "Then something went wrong, the Clutters didn’t have the safe, or Perry got nervous, or both, and they ended up tied up and shot. " This quote serves as a visceral reminder of the brutality Perry is capable of, appealing to the reader's sense of horror and disgust. Furthermore, Perry's lack of empathy and moral compass is evident, highlighting his monstrous nature.

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Nature versus nurture is one of the most controversial debates in contemporary psychology. The debate concerning whether or not humans are born with the preset characteristics that will shape lives for years to come or whether actions are a result of the events and the environment that pave the way for our behavioral characteristics. Capote’s “In Cold Blood” gives the audience a detailed look into the upbringing of the character Perry Smith, creating a sympathetic outlook towards his past and attempting to bring a sense of understanding as to how a seemingly harmless young man could brutally murder four innocent people. In the case of Perry Smith, nurture was the cause of his actions in regards to the Clutter family murders.

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Character Analysis- In Cold Blood In the novel In Cold Blood, Perry Smith, a dynamic antagonist with a cruel past, acts upon his built up resentment when he commits the vicious murders of the Clutter family. Although he did not receive any education exceeding the third grade, he wished to further his knowledge and eventually developed a deep love for literary art as well as music. As a child, Perry and his siblings were dragged off to California by his mother, a year before his parents divorced.

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In Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, there is no hero. The protagonist is not a hero, nor the law enforcement. Heroism becomes irrelevant when searching for justice following a tragedy such as the one seen on November 15th, 1959 in Holcomb, Kansas. Complexity, next to justice, is primary to put into account during the aftershocks . Perry Smith is the protagonist in the novel, not only due to author’s bias but also due to his sheer dynamic, a man disconnected from word to action.

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In the gripping novel In Cold Blood, the protagonist, Perry Edward Smith, is depicted as a good-spirited person, who is strongly influenced by the people who are the closest to him. Those three people are his father, his mother, and his partner in crime Dick Hickock. His father denies him of an education and treats him like a slave. His mother never loves him and never shows him how to love others. And Dick, takes control of Perry’s vulnerability and leads him into doing awful things.

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I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat.” (Chapter 2 page 102). Smith knows that his actions are inhumane and respects the Clutters, but even if he shows sympathy, there won’t be any escape to what he has done.

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Throughout the second part of the novel ‘Persons Unknown’, you learn more about Perry Smith’s horrific childhood and begin to form an idea that Smith was in fact nurtured into his murderous self. Capote expresses how as a child he experienced instability in every form, from family life to self-assurance, education (or lack thereof) to literally where he lived. He was exposed to abuse in detrimental situations due to his mother being an alcoholic and his father performing acts on her to gain power. Their partnership fell apart and the children were separated from their parents, they were sent to a Catholic orphanage where he then experienced abuse first hand. “[...] his dreams when he was seven years old, a hated, hating half-breed child living

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Perry Smith is a thief on parole from the Kansas City Penitentiary. He wishes to escape from his troubled life yet lies about killing a man just to impress somebody. Perry had a rough life growing up and it didn’t help that his parent’s weren’t good people. All of his siblings committed suicide except his sister but they never kept in touch because she was terrified of him. The only person Perry had (except his friend who was still in prison) was Dick who was also a convict.

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He ended up in a series of orphanages where he was severely beat and traumatized for wetting the bed. One nun at the orphanage would “ fill a tub with ice cold water, put me in it, and hold me under until I was blue.” Capote intends to provoke the audience's sympathy for Perry by including his terrible childhood experiences to explain his violent manner as well as provide reasoning to commit the crime he did. Perry has many examples of how his brutal life experiences cause his violent behavior. Perry has many sociopathic characteristics including, lack of moral responsibility or social conscience, erratic behavior, rage and anger, ability form a particular relationship to one person, crimes are usually spontaneous.

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590 Words | 3 Pages

Although Perry is responsible for the murder of four innocent people, Perry’s actions do not reflect on who he is as a person because he is easily influenced, therefore; showing how easily people can be pressured into doing something they would not typically do. Dick, a violent, cold-hearted, manipulator, has molded Perry into the person he is today. As Perry is a follower, Dick has taken advantage of that by turning Perry into the cold-blooded killer he is today. Capote displays Dick’s manipulation of Perry through symbolism to make evident that while Perry did pull the trigger on four innocent people, although the fault does not entirely lay on him, as he was taken advantage of by Dick.

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Truman Capote uses variety of language devices such as diction, similes and symbolism to vividly develop Perry Smith in his novel In Cold Blood and reveal aspects of the murder. Perry Smith is a sensitive, somewhat frightening and psychologically unstable character, but then again

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