Who Is Perry Smith In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

A lot of those insecurities show through the way Perry acts around Dick; one of these are seen with the use of juxtaposition, “The sound of Dick’s voice was like an injection of some potent narcotic, a drug that, invading his veins, produced a delirium of colliding sensations: tension and relief, fury and affection. He advanced toward Dick with clenched fists. ‘You sonofabitch,’ he said”(Capote 194). Perry has an internal conflict over whether he should be mad at Dick for overjoyed to see him. As a child Perry’s mother neglected him, left him by himself. He doesn’t want that to happen again, he doesn’t want Dick to abandon him like his parents did. This affection for Dick was toxic and caused the death of the Clutter family. Though this whole section of the book Capote uses a multitude of people and events to prove Perry is not to blame for how he has acted, it was the fault of this neglected childhood. If it weren’t for Perry’s trauma as a child, he may never feel these feelings for Dick preventing multiple deaths including their

This all comes down to the conclusion that maybe, If Perry would have lived a better life and more care was given to him from his parents and his parents more responsible and a bit

Through the poignant detail of Perry’s troubled and complex temperament, Capote’s subtly manipulative diction in In Cold Blood sculpts the murderer into a sympathetic character. In Perry’s first appearance, the criminal was said to be “no taller than a twelve-year-old child” (15) standing tall. Starkly contrasted to the stereotypical image of a murderer, “Little Perry” (55) is depicted with descriptors that blunts the sharp, preconceived edge of his homicidal nature. He is described innocently, youthfully, as if untouched by the dark horrors he was known to commit. Diction such as “sentimental” (54), “dreamer” (54), and “liked moonlight” (265) forcibly reveals a softer side to Perry. His artistic nature— the softer side of beauty, emotion, and wistfulness— coincides with the homicidal nature that drove him to kill four innocent people.

As a child Perry grew up with a limited education. When he is young and after his parent’s divorce Perry is living with his dad and is going to school. He finishes grade three but after that he never returns. Perry’s father moves from state to state throughout his childhood and prevents Perry from returning to school. Perry’s father wants Perry to stay with him instead of going to school so he can do work and take care of him. As Perry grows older however he understands that his father kept him out of school and Perry becomes extremely angry with him. Smith stated, “That bastard never gave me a chance. He wouldn’t let me go to school…. he didn’t want me to learn anything, only how to tote and carry for him. Dumb. Ignorant. That’s the way he wanted me to be. So that I could never escape him” (Capote 185). However, Perry is an intelligent and talented man with great potential. He has natural music ability, he likes to read and improve his vocabulary, and he also knows how to draw. In spite of this he never received encouragement from his father or anyone else: “Oh, the man I could have been! ... But the time came I begged to go to school. I happen to have a brilliant

Novelist, Truman Capote, in his informative novel, "In Cold Blood," recounts the mo-ments before the murder occurred and the aftermath of the murder. Capote's purpose is to illu-strate in detail the occurrences before, during, and after the murder; as well as, to inform the reader of why the murder took place in the first place. He adopts a factual tone to emphasize the seriousness of the situations; he then shifts to a grieving tone in order to appeal to similar expe-riences and feelings in his adult readers.

Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is a nonfiction novel that is renowned for Capote’s use of intertwining the facts of a Kansas tragedy with various literary techniques such as his creative structure, flashback, tone and foreshadowing to transform this crime into an entrapping work of art. Capote also weaves in many important issues such as a look into the minds of criminals, the value of the death penalty, and a commentary on social divisions, which he uses the literary techniques to bring our attention and examine.

Although Perry commits a ghastly offense he still contains another compassionate side to him, Capote’s importance is to tell readers Perry can be sweet too, therefore; he contends even though a person commits a crime doesn’t mean they are inferior.

The point of my essay is to prove that Perry Smith does not deserve the death penalty but he deserves to be admitted to a psychiatric ward. For example, "'Most typically the men displayed a tendency not to experience anger or rage in association with violent aggressive action.”(Capote Page 190). That is one piece of evidence out of many that will help explain how sick Perry Smith really is.

Humankind has mistreated him repeatedly since he was a child. Children can’t handle emotions very well. If they feel mistreated they believe they are being mistreated, and if they feel unloved they believe they are unloved.Young juveniles don 't try to reason away their emotions; they are what they are. So when a child builds up so much negative emotion, those feelings don 't just go away. They stick with the child forever, or until the child resolves them. The psychiatrist who evaluated Perry in In Cold Blood(Pg. 191) stated quite distinctly, "The history relating to extreme violence, whether fantasied, observed in reality, or actually experienced by the child, fits in with the psychoanalytic hypothesis that the child 's exposure to overwhelming stimuli, before he can master them, is closely linked to early defects in ego formation and later severe disturbances in impulse control. In all of these cases, there was evidence of severe emotional deprivation in early life." This clearly describes the person of Perry Smith. He underwent "severe emotional deprivation" as a child, and as an adult, he does indeed have "defects in ego formation" and no "impulse control". His lack of impulse control is evident when Perry slits Herb Clutter 's throat. "But I didn 't mean it. I meant to call his bluff, make him argue me out of it, make him admit he was a phony and a coward. See, it was something between me and Dick. I knelt down beside Mr.

Perry wanted to spare the mother’s hurt but it didn’t spare Dick any harm. Perry and Dick were sentenced to the Death Penalty. Sentencing two people together could be tricking but it can help by getting each side of the story and could save time in court. Since Perry and Dick were together at the crime scene then they should be tried together. So the Insanity plea was not appropriate for this trial. Once the sentence was given Perry and Dick were taken to a home by the prison to stay while on Death Row for four years. Once the four years came to an end they were then hanged for the murders of Herbert, Bonnie, Nancy and Kenyon Clutter. The Clutter’s were just a regular family who helped everyone that they could. They were willing to drop things they were doing to help someone in need. They were the type of family that always made people feel good. The Clutter’s were murdered on November 14th of 1959.

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood presents a striking argument within the text: was the trial for Edwards and Hickock fair and objective? After thoroughly researching and interviewing the convicts as well as the case, it was evident that Capote strongly opposed the death penalty given to Perry and Dick. Capote delves into the unjust trial forced upon the convicts, evoking sympathy from the audience without sacrificing the objectivity of the book. He effectively demonstrates

Perry endures a rough childhood and is a product of his insurmountable struggles in life. Perry grows up in a hostile environment and home, where he indicates feeling abused, neglected, and uncared for. Perry’s childhood exemplifies a breeding ground for mental illness. The environment seems unsuitable for children and most likely causes psychological damage. When giving a brief autobiography of his life, he states, “My mother was always drunk, never in fit condition to properly provide and care for us” (Capote 275). Perry recalls feeling “frightfully scared” because he is afraid his father would abuse him like he abuses his mom (274). Perry’s upbringing facilitates his mental instability in his future. He “seems to have grown up

In Cold Blood- 4 Although it appears Perry is trying to substitute people in his life for a family, he has a mental illness due to his past life experiences; therefore Capote asserts that people with mental illness should not be put to death. Perry had envy of others at an extreme level which was not normal for anyone. He had an interior motive for the crime which is partly explained with alliteration,“The enemy was anyone who was someone he wanted to be or who had anything he wanted to have,” (Capote 200). The repetition of words that began with ‘w’ throughout caused the sentence to be read again to fully comprehend it.

The reason why Perry was so lonely and may have been mentally lost is because of his family’s history. “His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled to death on her own vomit” (Capote 110) Not having his mother in his life because he was always under the influence of alcohol, Perry didn’t have anyone to talk to, not even some of his siblings. Perry had three siblings to talk to his feelings about but only him and his sister lived long enough. “Fern, the other daughter, jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel...And then there was Jimmy, the older boy-Jimmy, who had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself the next.” (Capote 110) Capote tells us about Perry’s family to show that because of their mother, there was something also wrong with the children. If two ended up committing suicide it does not sound crazy that another son committed a mass murder. There has been a trait that has been passed down from his mom to his siblings that made them act the way they acted. This gives us the impression that Perry had acted this way because of being neglected as a child from his alcoholic

At the end of the day although the prosecutor and dick hickock make valid point about the appropriate punishment for the crime, the prosecutor comment that dick death sentence should not be contingent on who actually pulled the trigger is a more valid statement while we may never know who pulled the trigger on the clutters, whether it be Perry side of the story or dick’s side of the story. We do know that dick is just as guilty as perry if not more, due to his involvement to the crime. He came up with the plan to rob and kill the clutters from his prison cell, he didn’t try to not kill the clutters when Perry asked him to leave after they didn’t find the money he stayed, he was always the brains in the group so the decision to get rid of the witnesses was