Perry's Insanity In Dr. Truman Capote

Although Capote acknowledges the atrocities committed by Perry, his utmost goal is to direct the blame on Perry’s insanity; therefore, Capote asserts that people with mental illness should not be put to death.
On the contrary, Capote always has an excuse for Perry’s actions. Capote utilizes juxtaposition to deviate the attention of the comparison of normalcy and insanity. Perry creates an escape plan for him and accomplices when, “Eventually, he wondered if perhaps he had invented them (a notion that he ‘might not be normal, maybe insane’ had troubled him…” (Capote 265). The manifest of Perry’s insanity is seen within himself. Perry stops to think about himself and sees how he does not act “normal” and comes to the conclusion that he is “maybe

Jones truly feels about Perry’s sanity. Dr. Jones, being a credible man, only had the choice of saying yes or no, to one question the court asks him: “And once more the court admonished the witness: “Answer yes or no, do you have an opinion?” “No”” (Capote 296). The court’s forceful strict system gave Dr. Jones a strenuous decisions. Dr. Jones was unsure of Perry’s mental state of whether he was mentally stable or not; therefore, Dr. Jones told the court “no,” no he did not have an opinion. Dr. Jones did have an opinion though stemming from his credibly through his interviews with Perry and concluded that: “‘Perry Smith shows definite signs of severe mental illness, His childhood… was marked by brutality’” (qtd. in Capote 296). Unfortunately, Dr. Jones did not get the opportunity to elaborate on why he answered the question with “no,” but would have told the court, Perry does not have a stable life and is furthermore not mentally sane. The court did not care why a credible man, like Dr. Jones, was unsure of Perry’s mental state and just went ahead with what the court sees as justified for punishment: death. Insanity is an illness an individual cannot overcome and will make decisions without thinking. Lacking the further knowledge of a criminal's mental state does not endorse the fate of acquiring the death