Gender Roles In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Although In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, the book appears to be mainly concerned with the murder of the Clutter family, one of the hidden themes of the book is gender and how Dick and Perry correspond to the gender roles. The book also puts forward a rather interesting question regarding masculinity, is masculinity a legitimate scale to judge a person or is it just another absurd social standard which is created to categorize people?
In Dick’s case, the reader can safely assume that he plays the “man” role in the relationship with Perry. Dick is considered the traditional masculine figure, “Dick was very literal-minded, very—he had no understanding of music, poetry,” (p.18). Dick represents the famous American macho figure with “his literalness” and “ his pragmatic approach to every subject” . He does not need to know music or poetry but he possesses the masculine and benevolent essence that makes people respect and even trust him completely. That is the reason why Perry is greatly

attracted to Dick or to his masculinity. Dick is not only the masculine figure Perry looks up to but also the figure he desires to become, “the primary reason Perry had been attracted to him, for it made Dick seem, compared to himself, so authentically tough, invulnerable, ‘totally masculine.’"(p.19). Perry does not personally necessarily tolerate Dick and his ways of living but there is something about the other man that Perry cannot stop being attracted to, it is something Perry has been yearning for his whole life - masculinity and social acceptance. Yet, despite being idolized by Perry, Dick has to constantly remind the reader and even himself that he is “normal”, “That, to be sure, was something he [Dick] was certain he was - ‘a normal’.”(p232) However, Dick is not normal, he is sexually messed-up with his pedophile act. Dick knows this, Perry knows this and even the reader knows this yet, somehow, Dick is still seen as more “acceptable” because he has acted out the gender role that society has expected him to be.
On the other end of the spectrum, in Perry’s case, one can see that Perry somehow plays the role of the “women” in their relationship.

Perry is often referred by Dick as “baby”, “honey” and “sweetheart.” This signifies that not only the reader can obviously division of gender role in their relationship but even the men themselves can see it. Dick is the “husband” and Perry is the “nagging wife.” And like any relationship, Dick soon became tired of Perry, “Dick was sick of him—his harmonica, his aches and ills, his superstitions, the weepy, womanly eyes, the nagging, whispering voice. Suspicious, self-righteous, spiteful, he was like a wife that must be got rid of.”(p.247). But unlike Dick, Perry has a great obsession with masculinity. His whole life, Perry is always trying to look for masculinity. Being greatly influenced by his father, a self-proclaimed “jack of all trades,”(p148), Perry sees himself inferior to a man with his malfunctioned legs and his problematic sleeping

habit.
From the case of Dick and Perry, the book brings us to an even greater theme, what gender actually means and more specifically what masculinity signifies in the book and in the society. Judith Butler famously remarks gender as “performative”, which means our gender is determined by how we act, not the other way around. By repeatedly carrying out the specific requirements for the gender, we are constructing our own gender, and even when we fail to perform the societal assigned gender, we tend to imitate it. In “In Cold Blood”, the murderers do the same thing. Perry, on several occasions, has pathologically lied about his crimes, killing a negro or stealing, he does this not only to impress Dick but also to prove that he is also capable of being a “man”. Both men uses each other to identify their own gender role, Perry thinks of Dick as a trusting and impressive masculine role model, while Dick considers Perry a pawn in his scheme to rob the Clutters and often treats Perry like how he would treat a women. If so is the case then what is normal masculinity? Perry, who is sexually inexperienced and has never married before, is greatly prejudiced against “pervertedness”- homosexuality, adultery, pedophilia and rape. On the contrary, ironically, Dick - has married twice and has three children, the epitome of masculinity in Perry’s mind - is a pedophile and a rapist. Another contradictory example of masculinity is when Dick and Perry decide to kill Mr. Clutter.
“He [Dick] was holding the knife. I asked him for it, and he gave it to me, and I said, ‘Leave them alive, and this won’t be any small rap. Ten years the very least.’ He still didn’t say anything. He was holding the knife. I asked him for it, and he gave it to me, and I said, ‘All right, Dick. Here goes.’ But I didn’t mean it. I meant to call his bluff, make him argue me out of it, make him admit he was a phony and a coward…But I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound. Like somebody drowning. Screaming under water.” (p.281)
Although Dick is supposed to be the “manly” one, it is Perry that pulls the trigger. It seems like the “man” does not have what it takes to do the deeds. After the murder, Perry is the only one who shows remorse over their death, while Dick does not seem to care, “Deal me [Dick] out,baby. I’m a normal”(p.108). One can argue that because Dick is a heartless man without capability to show regret or that he is too much of a man, too much masculinity to actually consider the crime. However, in fact, Dick does not commit the crime, it is Perry that does all the killing. So why should Dick feel remorseful? He just stands there, using the flashlight to guild Perry to kill the Clutters. In this sense, Perry has become more “masculine” than Dick, but then he is also regarded as the cold-blooded murderer of the Clutter family. So in the end, probably masculinity does not mean anything at all. It is just one of the meaningless notions that the society creates to overcomplicate the concept of gender.
Conclusively, there is no right way to determine one’s gender or masculinity because what is exactly gender and masculinity anyway? We are constantly in search of ourselves to determine what we should be and what we should become based on social standards, much like Perry, without realizing that eventually, gender, masculinity and femininity are all “performative” and more than often they are decided by ourselves.