Nature Vs. Nurture In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Capote talks about the lives of both killers previous to the murders in fairly significant detail. In the case of Perry Smith, his parents divorced early in his childhood and neither his mother nor father really wanted him. This produced feelings of abandonment and uselessness early on in Perry and affected the rest of his life. Capote brings up a letter written to the Kansas State Penitentiary about Perry by Perry's father, who was trying to have Perry paroled for a previous crime he had committed. Perry says that "this biography always set racing a series of emotions--self pity in the lead, love and hate evenly at first, the latter ultimately pulling ahead" (130). Perry didn't feel as though his father ever knew him very well, or even wanted to know him. He says, "whole sections of my Dad was ignorant of. Didn't understand an iota of...I had this great natural musical ability. Which Dad didn't recognize. Or care about...I never got any encouragement from him or anybody else" (133). When Perry's father threw him out of the house one evening because his father could no longer afford to have Perry live with him, Perry lost his sense of direction in life. He even says

The author's details in presenting the two killers are also vivid. Capote focuses on their physical appearance and differences. Dick Hickock was a "flimsy, dingy-blond youth of medium height, flesh less, and perhaps sunken chested" (30). He also had many tattoos--a hand, torso, and other places. "There is an ironic element into the inscription on one of Hickock's tattoos... 'the word PEACE accompanied by a cross radiating , in the form of crude strokes, rays of holy light.'" (Reed 108). Hickock's head looked as if it "has been halved like an apple, put together a fraction off center" (31). The author

parents at an early age and working as a merchant most of his life . He retreated to a cave in a near

Following the emotionally ‘flat’ perspective by Dick, is Perry’s self-pity attitude during his own chapter. Perry knows the annoyance of his voice to Dick, but has no control over his actions. With only having one thought repeated indefinitely, “I think there must be something wrong with us” (capote 30), one would need to vent in some manner. To continue, Perry’s pity persona even has the author himself take pity on him: “Look at his family!” (Capote 30). Capote demands the reader to acknowledge Perry’s grim adolescence and suicidal family: “His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit...Fern...jumped out a window...Jimmy...had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself the next” (Capote 30). Capote pities Perry and portrays him as human, instead of the monster everyone believes him to be. Capote explains how Perry’s mental state and upcoming is the reason he is mentally unstable. Capote exposes not all criminals are monsters. Referring back to Dick’s passage, Dick claims “Perry could be “such a kid,” always wetting the bed and crying in his sleep” (Capote 29). Perry never matured from his depressing childhood, and he remained a in this state into adulthood. Returning to Perry’s

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

When we hear about a killing on the news, our natural instincts are to immediately antagonize the killers. More likely than not, we hate the killers, and hope they get a vengeful prison sentence. In Truman Capote’s true crime non-fiction book, In Cold Blood, we learn about the murders that took place in Holcomb. The story is about much more than the slaying of a respectful family, its focus is on the killers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. One of Capote’s main purposes in the book is to convey the multiple perspectives of a crime in order for the readers to view the killers as more than just the bad guys, and he achieves his purpose primarily through the use of pathos, anecdotes, and his chosen narrative.

Capote expresses his idea of nature vs. nurture in Dick Hickock and Perry Smith and whether killers are born or made. With this in mind, he writes, “Dick became convinced that Perry was a rarity, ‘a natural born killer,’— absolutely sane but conscienceless, and capable of dealing with or without motive, the coldest-blooded deathblows” (205). This makes apparent Perry’s instincts to kill and Dick’s desire to manipulate Perry’s instincts to do so. Dick uses Perry as an image of who he wants to be, even though Perry feels shame and embarrassment. Capote inspects their motivations for the killings based on their backgrounds.

We see two heartless, cold blooded killers that slain the innocent family of the Clutters with the intent to leave no witnesses and to rob them of their hard earned money but Capote deceives the reader's emotions throughout the entirety of the book to humanize straight killers and make them likable. We often see a murderer as a psychopath without any emotion but it is hard to label Smith and Hickock one because Capote brings the reader into their lives in a way that we would feel sorry and have pity for them. Capote makes the reader relate to Smith and Hickock by describing their families and showing insight into the killers’ dreams and aspirations so we could perceive them as people and forget that they ended the future of the Clutters. Perry was a lonely child growing up and had a drunkard mother that forced him into foster care where he was abused and bullied

Truman Capote forms a close relationship with convicted murderer, Perry Smith, and allows his own personal perception of Perry to influence his story. Capote repeatedly puts emphasis on the fact that Perry comes from a troubled background and

the various cities he traveled to through the duration of his childhood. Although this story is designed to

His parents had drinking problems and were sometimes abusive towards him (Author Profile). There were many challenges for him in his early life. He wasn't a good student and his parents weren't supporting him.

He did not have decent nutrition and clothes to wear to school. Sometimes he would chose to miss his school, as he was ashamed of his appearance.

The towns' people lost most everything and just about had enough. Sheriff Wilbur Cochise Getem organized a posse and tracked him down to twin abandoned mining towns which were build along a narrow stream, 'Fallen And Can't Get Up.' After a long shootout and chase, Sheriff Getem

He was very isolated and was bullied as a child, so he spent a lot of his

his mother died, and he was left alone in the world to become a child of the workhouse