Perry Smith has dreamed of seeing his name on newspaper headlines, wishing to be written of as a musical prodigy loved by all. It is the year 1960, and Perry can be found on newspapers all across America, but Perry isn’t known for making great music. Instead, Perry Smith is topping headlines because of a crime he committed: the murder of the Clutters. In the book In Cold Blood, the author Truman Capote gives insight into the parts of Perry never seen before; his darkest secrets, grandest aspirations, and his downfall, where the Clutter family’s fate is a result of the neglect he faced as a child, his unhealthy attachments, and the corruption of his American Dream.
The root of Perry’s issues begins when he was just a child; the age where people …show more content…
The first most important dependency that Perry develops is an attachment to Willie-Jay. Perry grew fond of Willie-Jay because of Willie-Jay’s fondness, where he describes Perry as “a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity”’ (Capote --). He supported Perry to a fault, where even when he pointed out Perry’s extremes in mood, Perry was too swayed by his affirmations. When Willie-Jay decided to move on from prison life and start anew, Perry was lost; the hole that he tried to fill when he lost his parents was now empty again. In desperation for somebody to care for him, Dick Hickock became Perry’s new interest, where he projected his feelings towards Willie-Jay onto Dick. If Perry wasn’t abused in his childhood, and clinging onto any sort of love that could be discovered, he wouldn’t have developed these unhealthy dependencies on others. It is especially unfortunate that Perry came to Dick, as Dick is the one who developed the plan to kill the
The root of Perry’s issues begins when he was just a child; the age where people …show more content…
The first most important dependency that Perry develops is an attachment to Willie-Jay. Perry grew fond of Willie-Jay because of Willie-Jay’s fondness, where he describes Perry as “a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity”’ (Capote --). He supported Perry to a fault, where even when he pointed out Perry’s extremes in mood, Perry was too swayed by his affirmations. When Willie-Jay decided to move on from prison life and start anew, Perry was lost; the hole that he tried to fill when he lost his parents was now empty again. In desperation for somebody to care for him, Dick Hickock became Perry’s new interest, where he projected his feelings towards Willie-Jay onto Dick. If Perry wasn’t abused in his childhood, and clinging onto any sort of love that could be discovered, he wouldn’t have developed these unhealthy dependencies on others. It is especially unfortunate that Perry came to Dick, as Dick is the one who developed the plan to kill the