In Cold Blood Nature Vs Nurture Analysis

Humans make decisions many times a day, but what truly influences us to make the choices that we do? Are we controlled by our inherited traits and what we as people were born with, or does it have to do more with how one was raised in adolescence?

A debate on whether or not Perry Smith was more controlled by nature and nurture when committing crimes is a hot topic. Most solemnly believe that this is what manipulated the actions that Perry took. According to www.simplypsychology.org, "Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience and learning on an individual." Due to Perry Smith's exposure to abuse, the abandonment emotionally and physically from his family, and influential behavior from Dick, it led him to making extreme actions such as committing murder and other crimes.

On November 15, 1959, in the small town of Holcomb, Kansas, a family of four was brutally murdered by shotgun blasts only a few inches from their faces. The protagonist of the story, Perry Smith, a man with a troubled past, is the one responsible for committing these murders. In framing the question nature versus nurture, Capote’s powerfully written account of the Clutter family killings asks whether a man alone can be held responsible for his actions when his environment has relentlessly neglected him; Perry Smith is a prime example. He is an intelligent, talented, and sensitive human being, who has been warped and rejected by society and his environment, and therefore cannot be held

Nature or Nurture. Nature may be all of the genes and hereditary factors with which influence them to become who they are such as physical appearances and personality characteristics. Nurturing impacts people’s lives as well as how they are raised and all the environmental factors. In combination, these qualities can be the true identity of oneself. Many people may argue that nurture appears to a play huge factor in the two, but others may think otherwise. Not having both as a characteristic can have a negative effect on a person physically and mentally. The debate of nature versus nurture appears to be the oldest argument known to man, and it still remains to be unanswered. In the old-age argument nature versus nurture, nature may play a huge role in determining a person’s true identity.

Perry was one of four children, and his family traveled with a rodeo, being in some of the acts. His father was abusive, and eventually his mother took Perry and his siblings to live in San Francisco. His mother died when he was twelve, and Perry was sent to live in an orphanage. The humanity of Perry is seen when he talks about being abused in the orphanage. “It was after one of these beatings, one he could never forget [..] a bird taller than Jesus, yellow like a sunflower [..] winged him away to paradise.” (Capote 93) The reader can feel bad for Perry, seeing as he was abused all throughout his childhood. The use of the bird is an extended metaphor, with Capote mentioning the bird several times throughout the novel, in times that Perry seems to be at an all time low. The bird is a symbol of a savior, someone coming and taking Perry away from an environment that is abusive physically and emotionally. Dick uses the information he has about Perry’s background, and uses it to his advantage, manipulating Perry into thinking that Dick is on his side, when in reality, Dick is on no one's side but his own. The reader feels sympathetic toward Perry, and while not dismissing the crime itself, they feel as if they are lead to believe that Perry was blackmailed into committing the crime and that he had nothing to do with it. Capote makes the choice to portray Perry as someone who seems weak,

While Perry talks about his recurring dream he says “As the years went by, the particular torments from which the bird delivered him altered; others- older children, his father, a faithless girl, a sergeant he’d known in the army- replaced the nuns, but the parrot remained, a hovering avenger” (Capote 93). The idea of the bird explains Perry’s past of tormentation and how he never felt he was never good enough. Having this past leaves Perry yearning to be good enough for someone and a sense of vulnerability. With this vulnerability and hoffic past it can almost justify for Perry and his actions.

Are people designed or defined? Some say that inherited traits design individuals. However, others say the way life treats a person defines them. In the case of Perry Smith, nurture seems to be casting the deciding vote in his life. Nurture definitely trumps nature in deciding the way Perry Smith 's inner thoughts, feelings, and actions take shape.

In Truman Capote’s famous non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood, there is evidence that supports the injustices of the trial: death penalty. The final outcome of the trail was never to be any different than death. “Of all the people in all the world, the Clutters were the least likely to be murdered” (Capote 85). We know the two men who killed the Clutter family, Perry Smith and Bill Hickock, preplanned the crime with malice and forethought. Although the actions were crul and grusome, does Death Row fit what they did if their pasts, childhood environments and situation, are bad. Capote shows the effect of childhood on the killers and if the death penalty is fair. Capote gives the killers a voice to show their humanity by giving childhood

"Nature or nurture?",A common psychological question about whether a person acts a certain way because of their DNA or their upbringing. Nature is inherited traits of which can 't be controlled such as eye color. Nurture is the upbringing by our parents and family members. In the story In Cold Blood, Truman Capote talks about how Dick Hicock and Perry Smith committed four brutal murders. In this essay, we will go more in depth on how the nature and nurture of Dick made him do what he did.

Richard Mulcaster, a British instructor of English, once wrote, “Nature makes the boy toward, nurture sees him forward.” Mulcaster recognizes that both genetic and environmental factors determine the type of a person one becomes. Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood gives the reader an opportunity to see prime examples of how nature and nurture influence one’s character. Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood introduces the reader to two men; Richard Eugene Hickock known as Dick throughout the novel, and Perry Edward Smith whose lives of crime are almost identical; although both Perry and Richard come from very humble backgrounds, their childhood particularly their family life, has very little in common. It is not until later in their

Perry Smith as we learned in the book, is a very diverse character, sometimes he can be very quiet and subtle, and other times he can speak his mind very clearly with no regret. Dick Hickock , Perry’s best friend and "partner in crime" says "He might be ready to kill you, but you'd never know it, not to look at or listen to (Capote 67)." This simple quote goes to explain Perry as a person and how he can "slide into fury quicker than ten drunk Indians (Capote 67)." Clearly, something isn't all the way correct with Perry in the head. Just from this one quote, a reader may conclude, or assume that Perry is a psychopathic person, and that he has no control over his emotions or actions. Perry's rapid temper controlled his decisions and actions which led him slowly but surely to death.

There are many psychological arguments for whether it is nature or nurture that controls an individual. If one is controlled by nature it means that the traits with which they inherit and have no control over are the ones controlling them. If one is controlled by nurture it means that the way in which they were brought up has control over them. Perry Smith was the son of a white man and a drunken Cherokee woman, “it was from her that he had inherited his coloring - the iodine skin, the dark, moist eyes, the black hair, which he kept brilliantined and was plentiful enough to provide him with sideburns and a slippery spray of bangs. His mother's donation was apparent; that of his father, a freckled, ginger-haired Irishman, was less so.” (page 9) He was raised in a children’s shelter that was ran by nuns and priests. While Perry was living with his father he wasn’t allowed to go to school. When Perry was a young child his mother took him and his siblings away from their father, and in the next years he was taken away from his father, and his mother became a different person. Perry’s mother had let liquor get the best of her, and she was never again like she was before. Perry Smith’s life is a prime example on how nurture controls more of an individual than nature.

“Cut from the same cloth”, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”, “A chip off the old block”; most of us have heard these types of idioms at one point or another, ways of likening us to our parents. Sometimes they are right, while other times it couldn’t be farther from the truth; leaving us to wonder, “what is it that makes us who we are?” Are we simply the product of our environments, a collective sum of our interactions and experiences? Or, do our genetics pre-determine who we are, complex variations in our DNA that dictate our individual personalities? Some scientists argue on behalf of the nurture theory, that our personalities are continually changing and growing, influenced by the world and people around us. Others believe that we are pre-wired by genetics alone, that while external factors may magnify or diminish some aspects of that wiring, everything we are is already programmed into us from the moment of conception. So, who is right?

The Nature vs. Nurture has been a long never ending debate for some time now. Nature vs Nurture has been so profoundly debated, that now it’s unclear whether what makes us who we are and what we do, nature or nurture. For purposes of this essay Nature is going to be defined as characteristics we acquire through our genetic and biological factors, while that Nurture is going to be defined characteristics we acquire through our interactions and influences with the environment. There are endless ways of taking an approach to the Nature vs Nurture conflict, thus the reason that it’s truly unclear if its Nature or Nurture or even both what makes us who and what we are.

Scientists and psychologists everywhere study twins. The argument most commonly studied is nature versus nurture. The focus of this essay, however, is whether or not to separate twins in schools. Some believe the separation is demeaning and traumatic to the twins. The side about to be proved however that is this separation is a necessary step in the individualization of twins. Often, separation sparks the path to individualization.