Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

The concept of capital punishment and the epidemic of mental health provide a litany of conversation topics and varying opinions. When considering the two together, an issue arises: what degree of mental illness constitutes imprisonment instead of an institution when someone commits a crime? In Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel In Cold Blood, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith murder a family of four. Although Capote asserts Dick and Perry should have resided in a mental institution, the men did not commit their crimes due to their mental illnesses, but rather more extrinsic issues such as childhood events and social processes, thus meaning that Dick and Perry deserved imprisonment and that their mental issues did not lead them to rob and murder the

If the extrinsic factors have a more evident involvement than mental illness, imprisonment is the result. By examining the motivations behind Dick and Perry’s crimes, it is possible to determine to what extent those who have mental illness should be imprisoned or institutionalized. Though Capote suggests Dick has a form of mental illness, his past directed the murders as certain emotions and principles were triggered, not his mental illness, suggesting it was right to have them imprisoned not institutionalized.Throughout the novel Capote alludes to events in Dick and Perry’s history revealing past incidents which provide motive for their crimes. One titular event in Dick’s normal life was his parent’s inability to pay for college, despite an impressive resume. A clear effect that poverty had on Dick are his emotions towards what he deems a successful man.Dick envies men who have attained levels of financial success, “Dick’s day was ruined” after seeing a man wealthier than him, in fact he wished “open them up”(Capote 301). Philip Zimbardo, a psychology professor at Stanford University, stated that the ability to “relabel the situation's actors and their actions to legitimize the ideology” fosters evil, and Dick employs this towards the men he envies (Zimbardo

The reference to the men as brothers highlights the sense of community Perry feels with Dick and how powerful it is, they are no longer friends but brothers. The strength of this relationship aligns with that of the shooters' relationship, which involves committing acts of violence as the feeling of community overrides morality. Since this social process is evident in Dick and Perry’s relationship, it must have played a role as a cause of the murders, proving that their mental illnesses did not motivate the murders, meaning they deserved imprisonment, not an institution. Both men serve as examples to determine the extent to which external issues contribute to violence, although the men suffer from forms of mental illness. Dick has “signs of emotional abnormality,” while Perry has a “personality structure” that is “very nearly that of a paranoid schizophrenic reaction” (Capote 187 and 189). Though there is concrete evidence of Dick and Perry directing their actions based on outside factors, Perry experiences hallucinations, and Dick struggles to form emotional