Examples Of Sympathy For Perry In Dewey's '

Although Dick and Perry may both be killers, Capote uses language to portray Perry as a victim of Dick;therefore, Perry is seen through the eyes of the reader as an innocent man who was simply taken advantage of and molded into a killer by Dick.

Capote use three layers of trauma to completely develop the character of Perry Smith. Capote describes Perry’s childhood, mental state, describes why he does certain things

In addition, Capote depicts hypersensitive pathos to draw out the compassion of the readers because he wants them to understand the complex layers that make up Perry’s brain. Perry is not a simple murderer. He has

Now that Capote is fully inside Perry’s mind, he is capable of figuring out why Perry is who he is. He finds out that Perry’s troubles began at his childhood. He discovers that Perry was abandoned by his mother and had family members that committed suicide. Any person with that kind of background is bound to have psychological problems. This is when Capote begins to think that Perry was not given a fair trial. According to the M'Naghten Rule, the criminals could be tested for insanity by any kind of doctor, Capote felt as if this was not fair because Dr. Jones wasn’t allowed to elaborate about Dick and Perry’s medical report in the trial. Capote continues to gather information on Perry’s past to try to completely comprehend what Perry has gone through. He even makes a visit to Perry’s sister, who doesn’t want to have anything to do with him or the rest of their family. Perry’s sister’s

Capote’s diction makes Perry seem like a moral human being. For instance, Capote writes, “All along Dewey had argued that the mattress box had been placed on the floor for the comfort of Mr. Clutter, and taking heed of similar hints, other fragmentary indications of ironic, erratic compassion, the detective had conjectured that at least one of the killers was not altogether uncharitable.” that shows righteous word choice. The words “uncharitable”, “compassion”, and “comfort” are all extremely purposeful words that communicates Perry was not as heartless as he may seem. Pleading to the reader’s feelings, the diction depicts as Perry as a more caring person. Furthermore, when Dick says, “I’m gonna bust that little girl”, Perry responds with, “Uh-huh. But you’ll have to kill me first.”(Capote 243). With simple word choices like “bust” and “Uh-huh”, Capote conveys his purpose without flare. In this example, Dick wants to rape Nancy Clutter before killing her, but Perry refuses to let him do so. This reveals that Perry has morals, “Now that’s something I despise. Anybody that can’t control themselves sexually.”, and that Dick is a disgusting person who would rape an underage girl (Capote 243). Along with writing

Capote uses syntax to further capitalize on Perry’s dark origins as a source of cruelty. Using brief, but meaningful sentences, Perry is portrayed as a victim of society, repeatedly referring to the people who treated him poorly during his growth. His dark origins capitalized on when he describes his motives for killing the Clutter family: “‘And it wasn’t because of anything the Clutters did. They never hurt me. Like other people. Like people have all my life. Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it’” (290). Perry himself is emphasizing how the Clutters are innocent, but, because of the way people treated him his entire life, they unfortunately had to receive the brunt of his pent-up aggression. He repeats the phrase “like…” to once again draw attention to the fact that it was the people in his life that turned him into the criminal he grew to be. Noting how Perry essentially held a grudge against his childhood

Capote begins by applying an anecdote to persuade the audience about Perry's emotional journey. A story from Perry’s childhood is given in order to give Capote’s audience a glimpse into what could be causing his erratic behavior. For example, by Perry telling Dick, “...right before I had my motorcycle accident I saw the whole thing happen” because he was a “natural-born medium,” this might explain his odd ethical senses, and how he reacts to certain events in his life. Bias is drawn towards Perry by showing specific details into his past by giving us an idea of why he acts in these particular ways. Capote also uses strategies to set Dick as uninfluenced by this act of crime both he and Perry committed.

Throughout Truman Capote’s narrative novel, In Cold Blood, Capote uses many different rhetorical strategies to illustrate an attitude that he has towards the character in his book. Specifically, amid the passage from pages 132 and 133, Capote writes about Perry’s life prior to committing the mass murder of the Clutter family. Capote, through his sympathetic tone, shows the readers that although Perry participated in a terrible act, the struggles during his early life should lessen the responsibility of Perry himself. Throughout this passage, Capote uses many different techniques and styles of rhetoric to show his elegiac and sympathetic attitude towards Perry Smith.

To show that the murderers (Perry specifically), despite their horrible deed, were still human, Capote creates sympathy for Perry by using the quote, “His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit” (pg. 110). This quote shows the reader that Perry’s life growing up was miserable which eventually led to the tragic massacre of the Clutter family. Capote continues to represent this with this example representing how Perry ended up in this situation. As a child, Perry was faced with abuse, neglect, and an alcoholic mother. Not only did this affect him, but all of his siblings as well. One of his sisters, Fern, jumped out of a window. His brother, Jimmy, drove his wife to suicide and then killed himself. Capote uses this to show that not only did this have a

Truman Capote describes Perry Smith’s childhood in a way to make the reader feel sympathy towards him. His lack of nurture is brought up several times throughout the novel to show how it could have been a factor of his criminality. It also refers to his nurture several times as to possibly being the reasoning which led him to the murder of the Clutter family along with his only criminal companion. Perry grew up in an abusive household, witnessing the beating of his mother by his own father in result to their divorce. Perry also had two

Perry’s upbringing has a lot to do with the way he lives his life. Imagery is a big part of analyzing him, Capote paints a picture for the audience on how he is analyzing. Capote was making a direct comparison with Perry’s upbringing, childhood, and actions as an adult to his involvement in the murders. It’s a very precise cause and

Capote manages to effectively create a complete impression of the character of Perry Smith by showing his remorse and how he confides in Dick. By Capote allowing the readers to see Perrys weak and vulnerable side, it gave off the impression that he too, no matter the deed, had feelings. Capote uses sympathy as a tone when Perry confides to Dick. He creates the illusion that Perry's life was difficult. By adding the “murder” story into it, it also gives off the parallel of him being lethal. Capote’s value of character is shown through Perry by enlightening how he feels towards his past actions. He creates a sympathetic tone towards Perry. Capote uses short sentences to emphasis the dramatic and terrible conditions that Perry was put through

Capote builds sympathy for Perry to successfully express his view on capital punishment. Capote is against the death penalty, describing the system of appeals as a “slow cruel contest,” or “a game of chance” where a criminal's execution date is constantly being pushed back (Capote 330). Throughout the novel, Capote incorporates numerous details regarding Perry’s life, which was filled with hardship, mistreatment and neglect. This information convinces the reader that Perry, as well as his crime, is just a result of his environment. Perry confirms this belief when he states, “Maybe it’s just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it” (Capote 302).

Although Capote adds some much needed exposition into the backstory of Perry, his primary concern is to create empathy for Perry’s situation; therefore, he suggests that human disposition may be a product of its experiences.

Throughout the novel Capote depicts Perry’s actions as somewhat justified. He depicts Perry as having has a bad childhood, “after [a] beating … away to ‘paradise.’”. This helps to set up Perry as a character who has been troubles in life, but also it sets him up as having dreams to fulfil. Later he is depicted as a more likeable character through the quote, “most of my life I’ve done what [the cats are] doing”. This then leads up to Perry ultimately getting executed. Because of this