Hatred Kept Inside Both violence and evil exist in the human soul alongside gentleness and goodness. The short story "The Child by Tiger" is about the African American worker of the Sheppertons, Dick Prosser. In the earlier parts of the story, Prosser is a loving, hard-working man. Later one in Thomas Wolfe's "The Child of Tiger," Dick Prosser's violent and evil actions suddenly erupt. Upon introduction, Dick Prosser is pictured as a deeply religious, gentle, passionate, and multi-talented African American. Dick's passionate personality is shown when Dick is with the children, as “He called all of us ‘Mister’... ‘Cap'n’ Shepperton.” These greetings gave the children a feeling of being important and mature. These greetings also give Dick Prosser …show more content…
This incident happened all because of all the hateful, discriminating comments and all of the racism he has encountered in the past. After Lon Everett drove his car and collided with Mr. Shepperton’s car, the drunk Lon “swung viciously, clumsily, at the Negro, smashed him in the face.” These actions of Lon Everett are outrageous. There is no reason for Lon to do that to Dick, but this is what it was like in the South back then. This resentment and hate towards black people were tolerated in the past. It's like white people treated blacks as items or tools, something of that sort, and Dick doesn’t even retaliate, yet. Later on, Dick’s anger finally releases and kills several men, and he also kills Harris with a rifle. Then, two policemen tell him to come out, and as soon as the policemen kick down the door and come inside, as they are walking inside, Dick “shot him just above the eyes. The policeman fell forward on his face.” Dick knows that because he is a black man, he will not receive a fair trial, so he just goes berserk. His hunger for revenge has converted into his thirst for blood. This amount of unfair treatment has pushed Dick far enough for this to happen. Dick just couldn’t handle the amount of racism
One substantial give away of this is, the connotation of the names Dick and Perry call each other throughout the novel. Through the duration of their journey together Dick calls Perry “Babe” or “Honey” when they are talking to each other. The way that Dick talks to Perry is nearly identical to the way that he would talk to little girls as he manipulated them. As Dick begins talking to a little girl on the beach he refers to her as “my baby girl” (Capote 201) or “my little sweetheart” (Capote 201). Dick uses words with the same degrading connotation when he manipulates little girls, as when he talks to Perry, which proves that Dick views Perry as simply a small, shy, and submissive accomplice which he can control. Although Dick uses these nicknames for Perry in an authoritative way, Perry returns these names when he communicates with Dick as well. At one point he replies with, “Ok Sugar, whatever you say”(Capote 46). Perry’s eagerness to please is the reason that he calls Dick
Dick, the main character in Ragged Dick, is a man that fits every trait Alger describes in the story. He is a man who has a mediocre job, and is a very hard worker. Throughout the story, signs show us that Dick is a man who has ambition and is very determined to one day get away from his poor
In a quest for a sense of belonging and success in life as well as a need for survival and money from a steady job, Richard attempts to conform to the social rules of those around him and the expectations of how he must behave like a second-class citizen. To feel like a part of the community and to please his family in hopes of improving his home life, Richard begins to attend a Protestant church. He consents to become a member of the church and is baptized, but he does so to please his mother and because his need for association and acceptance with a group is immense. After the church service that night, Richard reflects, “I had not felt anything except a sullen anger and a crushing sense of shame. Yet I was somehow glad that I had got it over with; no barriers now stood between me and the community”. In addition to these expectations from his family and the black community he associated with,
Less complex of a character than Perry Smith, Dick Hickock undoubtedly deals with conflict in the latter part of his life that causes his mental state of mind to become impaired. Hickock, unlike Smith, endures a fair childhood. He is born into a “semi-poor” home, in which his parents rarely fight (Capote 277). Indeed, he respects his parents, and in turn, they prove loving toward him throughout his life. Involved in copious sports and attaining mostly A’s, his future seems bright. However, with no real money to pursue a college education, he turns toward the workforce. At his second job, he is involved in a car accident, which leads to the ruin of his mental state. Left for several hours unconscious, and with a “serious head injury,” he was not, as his father stated, “the same boy” (Capote 166, 294).
Dick Hickock had an excellent family, but they did struggle with finances. He was an outstanding athlete and a good student. Dick was “An outstanding athlete-always on the first team at school. Basketball! Baseball! Football! Dick was always the star player. A pretty good student, too, with A marks in several subjects…” (Capote 166).“I think the main reason I went there (the Clutter home) was not to rob them but to rape the girl” (Capote 278).
He opened a savings account for himself and deposited all of the money he had, except for the correct amount to pay change to Mr. Greyson, whom he owed from a shine the prior day. In paying his debt to Mr. Greyson, he earned his trust and bought himself an invitation to Sunday school and eventually lunch with the gentleman and his family. This was the start to Dick’s better life of saving his money, renting his own room, and meeting Fosdick, his new friend and private tutor. One day he ran an errand with Fosdick for his employer and the two rode the ferry when they witnessed a young boy, the age of 6, fall of the edge of the boat and into the water. Dick, not hearing the father’s offer of a reward for anyone who would save his son, dove in to save the boy anyhow. Once the boy had been returned safely to his father, the father was so grateful to Dick that he took him to have his wet suit dried and provided him with a suit nicer than his original suit from Frank. Dick then went in to speak with the man, as per his request, and was offered a position in his counting room with a wage of ten dollars per week, considerably higher than his wage would be at any other store or counting room. Dick gleefully accepted his offer and lived content knowing how hard he had worked for this day.
The dynamic between Dick and Perry was always fragile and dominated by a need to determine who was more masculine, who was in charge. This is made easier by simply blaming the other one for any negative consequences. Dick and Perry weren't particularly fond of one another; they had differing hopes, long-term goals, and motives. A dynamic as fragile as this was easily shattered after their arrests, leading to quick confessions and a solution to the puzzling quadruple
The reader is first introduced to Dick Prosser at the beginning of the story as somewhat of a Renaissance man. Prosser “He could cook, he could tend the furnace, he knew how to drive a car—in fact, it seemed to us boys that there was very little that Dick Prosser could not do… There was nothing that he did not know.” Wolfe goes on to laud Prosser for his remarkable marksmanship,
Throughout the passage told from Dick’s point of view, the syntax is surprisingly curt and choppy. As he is expressing his exasperation towards Perry, his sentences break off repeatedly. He states, “He was annoyed. Annoyed as hell”, which not only is comprised of two extremely short sentences, but also emits an aggressive tone (Capote 108). Dick’s attitude towards Perry becomes apparent quickly, as whenever Perry begins to speak Dick is filled with negative thoughts about his half-witted partner. The curtness and negative content of his thoughts show the annoyance and sheer contempt that Dick feels. Also, Capote uses the short and concise sentences when describing Dick to show his clear mindedness and his seemingly rational thought process. The simplicity of Dick’s thoughts make him seem more focused and reliable. He uses this contrast to emphasize the
motor company, "when I [Dick] had an automobile wreck with a company car. I was in the hospital several days with extensive head injuries" (Capote 278). The car accident caused his face to be slightly maligned, and, as concluded by Dr. Jones, caused residual brain damage and instability in his personality (Capote 286). Dick's father also confirmed that Dick had changed after the crash, expressing that "He just wasn't the same boy" (Capote 255). After experiencing the crash, many parts of Dick's life began to go downhill. His marital life twisted woefully, and when all was said and done, he had gone through 2 marriages. He did not have a steady job anymore, and he began to commit petty crimes, such as writing bad checks and stealing. The latter resulted in him being in jail, where he had met Perry, who was behind bars for burglary as well, among other charges. Dick and Perry had both agreed to kill the Clutters, however when the time came, Dick showed signs of doubt and lingered, while Perry had almost no hesitation. This seems to point back to each man's past, where Perry, who had a rougher childhood, did not seem to think twice about killing the family. His scarred adolescence points to a more cold-hearted, bitter, and lonely person, while Dick's more favorable youth showed signs of mercy and conscience.
"There were two cops. One said 'You niggers have to learn to respect police officers.' The other one said, 'If you yell or make any noise, I will kill you.' Then one held me and the other shoved the plunger up my behind. He pulled it out, shoved it in my mouth, broke my teeth and said, 'That's your *censored*, nigger.'"(Abner Louima) The police officers that allegedly performed this act of racial violence on August 9, 1997 had no reason to brutally beat and sodomize Abner Louima. They beat him for the fact that he was an African-American. I will show how I researched a poem by Maya Angelou and how racism occurred in "The Bluest Eye". First, we need to understand what racism is.
What the readers know of Dick’s past is very little, as Capote works to characterize him through flashbacks the readers know it was his plan to kill the Clutters and he does have some family “there were those Dick claimed to love: three sons, a mother, a father, a brother—persons he hadn’t dare confide his plan to(Capote 106).” But Capote characterizes Dick more so through descriptions of his habits than through his memories. “Inez was a prostitute…she was eighteen and Dick had promised to marry her. But he had also promised to marry Maria, a women of fifty who was a widow of a very rich banker(Capote 118-119)” Dick is shown throughout the book as someone who uses people to get what he wants, he calls on Perry to help him with his plan, he uses women for sex and money while making promises he never intends to keep. “If he knew Dick, and he did—now he did—would spend the money right away on vodka and women(Capote 119). Capote does not draw any sympathy from the readers, Dick is perceived as an emotionless man who pretends to believe in people and want the same
He verbally demands to be removed from the conversation. He also subtly bullies Perry by calling him a baby for mentioning his worries. Dick finds Perry’s confusion and commentary rather irritating because it is a reminder of the murder.
In order to paint an image of Dick as a controlling and condescending killer, Capote uses a simile to describe his stature. On page thirty-one capote describes Dick’s physique:“as though his head had been halved like an apple, then put together a fraction off center.” (Capote 31). Because Dick is described as abnormal it helps Capote achieve his purpose of demonstrating that Dick was a true monster who changed and molded Perry from a man into a killer. Capote describes Dick in this way to set Dick apart from a normal human being. A normal person could not have changed someone but because Dick was not normal he was able to change Perry. Because Dick is not normal he will be seen as the true
The dynamic partnership between Dick and Perry stems from their egos, or lack thereof. Perry is especially self-conscious, and his behavior as presented in the book is due to his sense of lacking and