Perry Smith

Truman Capote’s true-crime novel In Cold Blood. In the novel, Capote analyzes the personalities of the late Clutters, but also those of the culprits, Richard “Dick” Hickock and Perry Smith. The author reveals volumes regarding their characters and even the parts of them that led to the murder of the Clutters. In In Cold Blood, an inability to take responsibility, on the part of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, led to the slaughter of the Clutter family. To begin, Perry Edward Smith demonstrates a heavy amount of irresponsibility during his early years and up until the epoch of the murders. As a child of poor rodeo performers/substance abusers, Perry, nor his siblings, lived an idyllic life. Taking what that life handed to him, Perry, along with his brother and sisters, lived at the back of an old truck off of Hawks Brand condensed milk and Hershey kisses, among what Capote mentioned. As almost an extended metaphor, Perry consistently lived out a vagabond existence. From when Perry was a boy, he bounced from orphanage to orphanage, making a painful stop at one of the Catholic variety, where nuns…

personal responsibility for your actions. Perry shows all of these characteristics, whereas Dick does not; which makes Perry more moral than Dick. “In Cold Blood,” Perry shows an abundance of characteristics that relate to feeling compassion for fellow people and animals. With these attributes, Perry shows relations of having morals. Dick does…

advantage of rhetorical strategies to convey his attitude towards Perry Smith. Throughout the book Capote writes about the story behind the Clutter family murders from the eyes of the townspeople and the murderers, both Perry Smith and Richard Hickock, while doing so we can see the contrast of attitude that Capote has towards both Smith and Hickock. In this way, Capote uses strategies of characterization, and pathos to convey the words of Perry Smith. In the beginning of page 290 we start off…

book. The major one I can see after reading the book and the article, “Truman Capote and the Legacy of In Cold Blood” is that Capote and Smith had a romantic relationship. There is homosexual content all throughout the book, even between Perry and Dick. Capote’s work was influenced from his romantic interest in Smith, he favored this individual, made excuses for him, and tried to gain empathy for him. First, I think the indication of homosexual content was seen when Dick started…

of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, in 1959. The novel is based on real-life crime which was committed by two convicts: Perry Smith and Richard Hickock. The crime is mentioned early on a book before the story begins: "four shot gun blasts that, all told, ended six human lives" (Capote 5). Those six lives are the four members of the Clutter family, and the two murderers who are eventually were executed by hanging to death at the Kansas State Penitentiary for their crimes. In the novel,…

abusive families led both of them to what their adulthood would end up being, Capote just got lucky in how he ended up (Truman Capote, In Cold Blood (1966)). Both Capote and Perry Smith had “some of the most insecure childhoods I know of and there are psychological records of it” (Nance). These insecure childhoods had an influence on how Perry Smith made decisions along with Capote. “Perry Smith’s life had been no bed of roses, but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress”(Capote 245). Both of…

to see into the lives of the killers and the petrified people of Holcomb, Kansas. On November 15, 1959, Richard Hickock and Perry Smith brutally murdered Herbert, Bonnie, Kenyon and Nancy Clutter in their farmhouse. Floyd Wells, a previous cell mate of Dick Hickock, told him previously of a safe that was hidden in Mr. Clutter’s home office. Dick and Perry’s motive was to rob the Clutter family; however, they had no intentions on leaving behind witnesses. Capote tells the tale of Dick and Perry’s…

Everything he included within the novel from beginning to end was nothing but the truth which lead to his factual tone. This is demonstrated when he states, “The evening of Wednesday, December 30, was a memorable one in the household of Agent A. A. Dewey” (Capote, In Cold Blood 240). As well as when he begins to quote Perry Smiths testimony “Around midnight. Dick said it was seven miles away, he kept talking to himself saying this ought to be here and that ought to be there-according to the…

The Clutter family murders, which gained celebrity after the 1965 publishing of Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood,” were the brutal slayings of Herbert and Bonnie Clutter and two of their children, Nancy and Kenyon, by 27-year-old Richard Hickock and 30-year-old Perry Smith (Garden City). The two killers, Hickock and Smith, knew each other from their time spent in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas. It was during their first stay in prison where Hickock heard of Herbert Clutter from a…

their personalities and background than others. For example, Perry Smith, one of the murderers, was characterized in much more depth…