In Cold Blood Nature Vs Nurture

Nature vs. Nurture

Every person has a nature instinct and a nurture instinct inside them, but the dominance of a certain one usually depends on the person. Some people have a stronger urge to help and protect others than to better themselves, while other people have the most interest in self-preservation. It is not just what a person thinks or feels that shows their true side, but also moments of quick judgement, snap-decisions, and kill or be killed. In these times of life or death, humans usually resort to instinct, which can be considered nature. What most people may not think about is the fact that natural instinct often includes the urge to nurture. This can be shown in many moments in history, from cold blooded murder to religion to

simple wildlife.
Nature and nurture are usually seen as very different things, but they are actually somewhat similar and even integrated. There is a huge debate over which holds more influence over how people develop and whether they behave based on genes or their environment. In Sincero’s article Nature and Nurture Debate she discusses arguments for both sides, saying behavior may be completely in a person’s genes, or it could come from experience and influence. Many people believe “that the criminal acts, tendency to divorce and aggressive behavior causing abuse can be justified by the ‘behavioral genes’” (Sincero). These genes are said to be the reason that people behave as they do and one cannot help their own actions. Other arguments suggest “that genetic influence over abstract traits may exist; however, the environmental factors are the real origins of our behavior. This includes the use of conditioning in order to induce a new behavior to a child, or alter an unlikely behavior being shown by the child” (Sincero). Environment is a key role in determining how a person is developed, even if genes lay the foundation for personality. However, not only are both very important in influencing behavior, but they also incorporate each other, as part of natural instinct is to prosper and grow, which includes nurturing and protecting others. The importance of nature and nurture in the development of a person as well as their importance within each other contribute to many different situations in life, including murder.
Murders occur for several different reasons, some resulting from an instinct of nurture, or an urge to protect. A prime example of this is Dolores Markee, who killed her ex-husband on January 6, 1993 in order to protect her child. She was tried and convicted of murder, then sentenced to 58 years in prison. Dolores murdered George, her former spouse, with the claims that he had been abusing their child. Although Dolores killed George to protect her daughter, the justice system still saw this act as murder and sent her to prison. Prior to this incident, George had already abused Raquel, their daughter, several times. Whenever Dolores went to report it, the District Attorney’s Office did almost nothing to help. As tensions increased, “George’s behavior deteriorated with heavy drinking, verbal abuse, and jealousy” (Tripod). Eventually, George even won custody of Raquel, and when Dolores went to drop her off, George began making threats against Raquel and Dolores. Dolores then shot George with the intent to protect her child from further abuse, either without thinking of the consequences for herself or not caring about them. This violence was not just a natural instinct, but also came from Dolores’s urge to protect and nurture her daughter. Although some murders may occur as a result of the need to protect loved ones, others show a nurturing side in the murderer by the way they were killed.
Sometimes, murderers may seem to be malicious and heartless, but they actually have a lot of compassion in them that has been twisted into something abnormal and ugly. Such is the case with Perry, one of the murderers of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, 1959. In Truman Capote’s book In Cold Blood, he portrays not only the life of Perry and how he thinks, but also the state in which the Clutters’ dead bodies were found, which also gives insight into Perry’s state of mind. Each dead member of the Clutter family was found with some sign of care and nurturing about them, making investigator Dewey wonder “why had the murderers taken the trouble to move the box from the far end of the basement room and lay it on the floor in front of the furnace, unless the intention had been to make Mr. Clutter more comfortable” (Capote 103). Dewey also mentioned how he kept picturing “a murderer now and again moved by considerate impulses… those bedcovers… or the pillow under Kenyon’s head” (Capote 103). The killers, or Perry, at least, had made sure that the Clutters were somewhat comfortable before doing what they felt they had to in order to ensure there would be no witnesses. It was Perry’s natural instinct to care for them and nurture them even as he killed them, especially since these would be the last moments of the Clutters. This instinct to protect and care for others implies a compassionate if somewhat dysfunctional childhood of Perry’s and the environment he grew up in, but Perry’s home life may not have been as nice as it seemed.
The book In Cold Blood describes with great detail the life of Perry as a child, which was very troubling and could not be said to contribute to Perry’s instinct to nurture. Even from a very early age, Perry’s family began falling apart, creating a very hostile environment to grow up in. His parents, Tex and Flo, “fought, and Flo ‘took to whiskey,’ and then, when Perry was six, she departed from San Francisco, taking the children with her” (Capote 131). Perry’s mother was a drunk who took the children away from their father, even though Perry bonded with him the most. His home life after that just got worse with absolutely no atmosphere of compassion or consideration. Perry’s mother even put him in an “orphanage run by nuns… who whipped him for wetting his bed” (Capote 93). The surroundings in which Perry grew up in may partially contribute to his life of crime, but there is no explanation for his instinct to nurture other than that it was perfectly natural for him. Although Perry’s life shows that the urge to protect can come from natural instinct and not just environment, Dick’s life was the exact opposite yet conveys a similar message.
Dick, the other murderer of the Clutter family, was portrayed as a person with no compassion or care for anyone other than himself in the book In Cold Blood.

Unlike Perry, Dick actually had a very nice childhood with a family who loved him. When Detective Nye was questioning Dick’s parents, Mr. Hickock began explaining the life of Dick, starting with him being “‘an outstanding athlete… always the star player. A pretty good student, too, with A marks in several subjects’” (Capote 166). Although Dick had a much better childhood than Perry, he still had a very limited ability to feel compassion compared to Perry’s instinct to nurture. Dick’s lack of consideration is shown greatly when Perry recounts the events of the murder and tells the detectives that Dick said “‘I’m gonna bust that little girl.’ And I [Perry] said ‘Uh-huh. But you’ll have to kill me first… He says ‘What do you care? Hell, you can bust her, too’” (Capote 243). Dick had no regard for other people or how they feel, while Perry intervened with Dick’s self-interest in order to consider the emotions of the Clutters. Even after the murders, Dick felt no remorse for what he and Perry had just done, only feeling that they had “scored” by getting a little bit of money. The life and development of Dick show that even a nurturing environment may not contribute to a compassionate soul. The instinct to nurture may not always come from surroundings, as Dick shows, but beliefs and religions show that nature and nurture are a part of each other and both contribute to the development of a

person.