While the heart acts as batteries, which keeps the body moving. It is the conscious human mind that makes individuals what they are. It is the human mind, which establishes an individual from one another. When the conscious human mind is distorted, it is referred to as a mental illness. Mental illnesses affects the conscious minds mood, thinking and behavior. In Truman Capote’s novel In Cold Blood, he depicts the horrors of a crime which happened in a small and quiet neighborhood. What gave the novel its legacy, was not only that it was based on real events, but the horrendous details about the crime that was described. In the novel, Capote’s primary focus centers on the character Perry who suffers from Paranoid Schizophrenia. Perry Smith is
…show more content…
Most people will argue that Perry’s paranoid schizophrenia is an excuse to justify his crime. Capote skillfully gives background information on Perry’s past and establishes valid reasoning for its development. Paranoid schizophrenia “Research points to several stress-inducing environmental factors that may be involved in schizophrenia. High levels of stress are believed to trigger schizophrenia by increasing the body’s production of the hormone cortisol” (“Understanding Schizophrenia”). Throughout the book, Perry constantly reflects on his past and the troubles he has with his family. Perry has gone through an immense amount of stress in his life. This high level of stress is most likely the source of Perry’s Paranoid Schizophrenia. Perry’s stress comes from his dysfunctional family and the awful life he lived through. This is because, Capote wants to provide readers with insight of Perry’s troubles family life. In doing so, readers will sympathize with Perry because they will recognize the dysfunction within his family. Capote explains, “Look at his family!...His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled on her own vomit...Fern, the other daughter, had jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel...and there was Jimmy, the older boy—Jimmy, who had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself the next” (115). Everyone within Perry’s immediate family has something wrong with them. This causes Perry to experience a dysfunctional childhood, which contributes to his stress. The dysfunctional lifestyle that Perry experienced is most likely the root of his paranoid schizophrenia. After Smith 's mother died when he was thirteen, he and his siblings were placed in a Catholic orphanage, where nuns abused him physically and emotionally for his lifelong problem of chronic bed wetting. By providing readers with insight on Perry’s
Most people will argue that Perry’s paranoid schizophrenia is an excuse to justify his crime. Capote skillfully gives background information on Perry’s past and establishes valid reasoning for its development. Paranoid schizophrenia “Research points to several stress-inducing environmental factors that may be involved in schizophrenia. High levels of stress are believed to trigger schizophrenia by increasing the body’s production of the hormone cortisol” (“Understanding Schizophrenia”). Throughout the book, Perry constantly reflects on his past and the troubles he has with his family. Perry has gone through an immense amount of stress in his life. This high level of stress is most likely the source of Perry’s Paranoid Schizophrenia. Perry’s stress comes from his dysfunctional family and the awful life he lived through. This is because, Capote wants to provide readers with insight of Perry’s troubles family life. In doing so, readers will sympathize with Perry because they will recognize the dysfunction within his family. Capote explains, “Look at his family!...His mother, an alcoholic, had strangled on her own vomit...Fern, the other daughter, had jumped out of a window of a San Francisco hotel...and there was Jimmy, the older boy—Jimmy, who had one day driven his wife to suicide and killed himself the next” (115). Everyone within Perry’s immediate family has something wrong with them. This causes Perry to experience a dysfunctional childhood, which contributes to his stress. The dysfunctional lifestyle that Perry experienced is most likely the root of his paranoid schizophrenia. After Smith 's mother died when he was thirteen, he and his siblings were placed in a Catholic orphanage, where nuns abused him physically and emotionally for his lifelong problem of chronic bed wetting. By providing readers with insight on Perry’s