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Empathation And Mipathry In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

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Truman Capote brings Dick and Perry front and center during “The Corner” chapter of In Cold Blood. Capote allows the reader to empathize with Dick and Perry in completely different ways. Each character shows how the arrest, interrogation, and sentencing affects them and the way they process life. These emotional attachments that Capote creates allows the reader to discover that not only are Dick and Perry not ruthless murders, they are actually humans with fears and regrets. The arrest that happens in Las Vegas comes as an utter shock to Dick and Perry. They were in the process of picking up the items, “two pairs of steeled-buckled boots” that could relate them to the murder, when cops figured out it was them (214). Cops told Dick that he was being questioned for a “parole violation” and the hot check …show more content…
He had the same story as Dick; however Perry had forgot information that he should have remembered to match Dick’s story. He did not answer questions that the detectives asked. The moment that they challenged him he gave away tell-tell signs of deceit. Perry visibly became nervous and “shifted” in his seat while drying to moisten his dry lips (225). The moment that the revealed that they were there for the murders of the Clutters, perry “rubbed” his knees and kept silent, other than to deny the allegation, in order to protect Dick (226). He cared for the trouble got in and believed that Dick would protect him too.
Perry finds out that Dick rats on him and is upset by these actions, seeing as he only protected and lied for Dick. Perry states that he did take part in the killing, but Dick is not innocent. Dick was also a killer, slaying two of the Clutter family members. however when trial had come Perry changed his story to preserve Dick’s mother’s heart. Perry said that he “killed Mrs.Clutter and Nancy… not Hickcock”(286). this shows that Perry although violent, was the more empathetic one of the two

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