Truman Capote’s 1965 novel In Cold Blood, was based upon the true events of the Clutter family murder case, that occurred in the year 1959, in the very modest town of Holcomb, Kansas. The story revolves around the two insensitive murderers, Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene Hickock, whom have had the past of growing up in completely opposite home environments from one another, and the detective Alvin Dewey, who goes out of his ways to try his best to capture these criminals. Although Perry and Richard seem to have very distinguished personalities, they are both are found in the same position of robbing the lives of the four family members that include committed worker, Herbert Clutter, his depressed wife Bonnie Clutter, and his young teenaged
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One of the vital character’s in this novel, includes detective Dewey, whom played a big part with the help of discovering who the murderers were. During that process, detective Dewey takes the whole situation to a new level of becoming psychologically attached to this case, and he feels like he, “know[s] Herb and the family better that they know themselves” (Capote, 92), and has an unreasonable understanding of being “ haunted by them… and always be, unit [he] knows what happened”. It was his strange way of relating to the Clutter family, to his own life, as he has his family, and can not imagine his loved one ever going through that amount of pain. This theme relates to the novel of Les Miserables, as the police named Javert, becomes obsessed with hunting down the escaped convict, Jean Valjean. He later on in the novel begins to realize that he was so focused on capturing this man, that he seems to lose his true self, and recognizes his reflection of an enraged soul, one which he, at the end, desires to change (Hugo). These two characters, Dewey and Javert, share the struggle of allowing their profession take over their lives, and in effect, also cause them emotional harm, not only to them, but to those who surround them as
One of the vital character’s in this novel, includes detective Dewey, whom played a big part with the help of discovering who the murderers were. During that process, detective Dewey takes the whole situation to a new level of becoming psychologically attached to this case, and he feels like he, “know[s] Herb and the family better that they know themselves” (Capote, 92), and has an unreasonable understanding of being “ haunted by them… and always be, unit [he] knows what happened”. It was his strange way of relating to the Clutter family, to his own life, as he has his family, and can not imagine his loved one ever going through that amount of pain. This theme relates to the novel of Les Miserables, as the police named Javert, becomes obsessed with hunting down the escaped convict, Jean Valjean. He later on in the novel begins to realize that he was so focused on capturing this man, that he seems to lose his true self, and recognizes his reflection of an enraged soul, one which he, at the end, desires to change (Hugo). These two characters, Dewey and Javert, share the struggle of allowing their profession take over their lives, and in effect, also cause them emotional harm, not only to them, but to those who surround them as