Portrayed as Evil was He

756 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Crime and punishment, excerpt

Portrayed as Evil was He

In the book “In Cold Blood” we meet Perry Edward Smith one of the men accused of killing the Clutter family. Perry is a unique man for how he see the world and how the world sees him. Although the townspeople and those who had heard of the murder only saw Parry as a murder. There is however one man who sees Perry more than he appeared to be and that man was Truman Capote. Perry had an interesting life from how he was raised, becoming friends with Richard Eugene Hickock, to the murder of the Clutter family, all the way to Capote writing about him and the trail he and Dick must face. It was Capote who brought the idea that Perry was not a bad person persa but rather he made a mistake that has caused him to spend the rest of his life behind the bars of a jail.
Perry was born on October 27th, 1928 to two rodeo performers who would later separate when he was still a child. Perry would be raised by his mother who would battle with an addiction with alcohol his entire childhood. Before Perry could reach the age of adulthood his mother would die leaving him in the hands of a Catholic Orphanage. Where Perry was constantly abused both physical and emotional for wetting his bed, while would become a lifelong problem. In his teens Perry would go to live with his itinerant father. Within these years two of Perry’s sibling would end up killing themselves while his only living sibling would cut off all contact with Perry.
In World War II Perry would serve with the U.S. Merchant Marines, while serving he would visit other continents such as Asia. Perry would many skill that he would later use in his life. Not only had Perry served his country in World War II he was also a decorated Korean War veteran.
Perry had an unyi...

... middle of paper ...

...anger problems and was lead astray.

Works Cited

Blanco, Juan I. "Perry Edward Smith | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers."Perry Edward
Smith | Murderpedia, the Encyclopedia of Murderers. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2014.
Hoffer, Steven. "Richard Hickock, Perry Smith, 'In Cold Blood' Killers, Exhumed From Mount
Muncie Cemetery." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 18 Dec. 2012. Web. 09 Mar.
2014.
"Kansas Memory." Perry Edward Smith Inmate Case File -. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
Reporter, Daily Mail. "Police Exhume Bodies of Killers from Truman Capote's In Cold Blood to
Collect DNA Evidence in Connection to 1959 Quadruple Murder of Florida Family." Mail Online.
Associated Newspapers, 19 Dec. 2012. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
"Salon." Salon.com RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2014.
Capote, Truman. "Part 2,." In Cold Blood. N.p.: Random House, 1965. 244. Print.

Show More
Related

  • How Does Willie Jay Influence Vulnerable People

    409 Words  | 1 Pages

    To establish the idea of an impressionable Perry, Capote needs an example of Perry conforming to Dick’s values. This opportunity arises when Dick questions the validity of Perry’s past killing. Perry has described that he had, “picked up this bike chain… hit him across the face… kept right on… left him there” (Capote 112). Vulnerability is exemplified by Perry’s anecdote, because he, “was not a gifted liar, or a prolific one” heavily implying that Perry has not killed before the recent murders (Capote 112). Capote’s inclusion of this fallacious anecdote reveals the truth about Perry’s moral obligations, namely that he has none. Perry simply grasps the moral values which appear closest at hand and clings on to them for dear life. In this case Perry’s true morals are synthesized into Dick’s, proving how evil can infest mentally defenseless people.

    Read More

  • Narrative Style of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    662 Words  | 2 Pages

    Capote's structure in In Cold Blood is a subject that deserves discussion. The book is told from two alternating perspectives, that of the Clutter family who are the victims, and that of the two murderers, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The different perspectives allow the reader to relive both sides of the story; Capote presents them without bias. Capote masterfully utilizes the third person omniscient point of view to express the two perspectives. The non-chronological sequencing of some events emphasizes key scenes.

    Read More

  • Perry Smith In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    327 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Cold Blood by Truman Capote features Perry Smith. A tragic character who was recently released from prison after murdering an African-American. Aside from having a troubled pass, Perry has a very troubled and conflicted present. In this passage on page 21, Perry is described as a stocky man with scars that riddled his legs. A tattoo of a snake hugging a dagger adorns his chest and a tiger lay on his bicep.

    Read More

  • Apology In Cold Blood

    879 Words  | 2 Pages

    When one kid pushes another kid, the immediate response is to tell the kid to apologize. Although the child may apologize, he is not actually sorry for his actions. This may seem childish, but there may be some legitimacy behind the fake apology. Too often, when people err, they do not understand what they did, why their action was wrong, or why it is okay for others to repeat a similar action. In the same way, in Truman Capote’s nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood, when Perry Smith murders four members of the Clutter family, he has little to no remorse. It becomes evident to the reader that Perry Smith is truly a “cold-blooded killer”.

    Read More

  • Cold Blood by Truman Capote

    884 Words  | 2 Pages

    In 1965, Truman Capote created the infamous tale known as “In Cold Blood”. The book created the illusion of fantasy while based on reality. Many people were floored at the brilliance Capote demonstrated within the pages. The book took the literary concept of a novel with the literary elements of designed scenes, characters, a story formed with an introduction, rising action, climax and resolution to the real events surrounding the murder of the Clutter family.

    Read More

  • Different Ways To Humanize The Killers In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    1485 Words  | 3 Pages

    Truman Capote finds different ways to humanize the killers throughout his novel In Cold Blood. He begins this novel by explaining the town of Holcomb and the Clutter family. He makes them an honest, loving, wholesome family that play a central role in the town. They play a prominent role in everyone’s lives to create better well-being and opportunity. Capote ends his beginning explanation of the plot by saying, “The suffering. The horror. They were dead. A whole family. Gentle, kindly people, people I knew --- murdered. You had to believe it, because it was really true” (Capote 66). Despite their kindness to the town, someone had the mental drive to murder them. Only a monster could do such a thing --- a mindless beast. However,

    Read More

  • Sympathy for Murderer in Truman Capote´s In Cold Blood

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Perry Smith did not live the happy childhood that he deserved, abandoned by his family at a young age he was forced to live at a terrible orphanage. “The one where Black Widows were always at me. Hitting me. Because of wetting the bed...They hated me, too.” (Capote 132). In this specific orphanage, Perry was beaten by the nuns that own the place. The short sentences within this quote truly emphasize the dramatic and horrible conditions that Perry had to live with in the orphanage. Sympathy is created ...

    Read More

  • Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    572 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Cold Blood is a true account of a multiple murder case that took place in Holcomb, Kansas in 1959, written by Truman Capote. Capote’s attention to detail causes the reader to gain an extreme interest in the Clutter family even though they were an ordinary family. The suspense that is a result of minimal facts and descriptive settings was an elaborate stylistic technique that gave effective results throughout the book. His ability to make this account of a horrid crime more than just a newspaper description was a great success as a base of his many literary devices, not just is great focus to small details.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Imagery In Truman Capote

    808 Words  | 2 Pages

    Through the course of the book, Capote uses vivid descriptions to his advantage in order to place emphasis on more noteworthy parts of the story. Capote’s choice of imagery characterizes Perry as a person and gives an idea to who he is. Perry’s life prior to crime was normal for awhile, until his family situation crumbled: “in the ring, a lean Cherokee girl rode a wild horse, a ‘bucking bronc,’ and her loosened hair whipped back and forth, flew about like a flamenco dancer’s. Her name was Flo Buckskin, and she was a professional rodeo performer, a ‘champion bronc-rider.’ So was her husband, Tex John Smith; it was while touring the Western rodeo circuit that the handsome Indian girl and the homely-handsome Irish cowboy had met, married, and had the four children sitting in the grandstand. (And Perry could remember many another rodeo spectacle--see again his father skipping inside a circle of spinning lassos, or his mother, with silver and turquoise bangles jangling on her wrists, trick-riding at a desperado speed that thrilled her youngest child and caused crowds in towns from Texas to Oregon to ‘stand up and clap.’)” Perry’s troubles after his parents separation may very well have contributed to his becoming a murderer later on down the road. The abrupt change in his life at such a young age, clearly had a lasting impact on him and his lifestyle. His past altered the way he thought and the type of person he was. Capote quotes,

    Read More

  • To Kill A Mockingbird: Nature Vs. Nurture

    701 Words  | 2 Pages

    Being defined by nature or nurture. Isn't enough to make finally decisions about one person. But for some it just might be. Perry Smith had an abusive past. It seems to still haunt him when he looks back on it. But that justify his crimes in anyway. Perry seems to have handles himself very well about the past ,but that isn't enough. Perry Smith on the night of November 15, 1959 was at a point where he made a choice that would affect him for the rest of his life. Perry deep down believes Mr. Clutter is a nice gentlemen and even says so. Yet his actions were done out of the natural nature to him. He then ends up cutting his throat, followed by shooting the rest of his family brutally. In this case, it clearly shows Perry smith as someone who takes up in the naturally

    Read More

  • Mental Illness In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    433 Words  | 1 Pages

    On pages 265-266 of Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood, Capote writes about Perry’s imprisonment, more specifically Perry’s mental health, or lack thereof. Capote uses an ominous tone to convey the predicament Perry was in and portray the mental instability possessed by Perry. Capote first discusses a failed escape plan of Perry’s that consisted of throwing a document with a detailed rescue plan down to two men who often gathered below his window, thinking that they were there for him. However, as soon as he created the document, the men stopped coming. The strangeness of this scenario pushed Perry to question his sanity. Regarding this, Capote says, “a notion that he ‘might not be normal, maybe insane’ troubled him” (Capote 265). When Capote says that these issues

    Read More

  • The Author's Biases in Into the Wild and In Cold Blood

    1072 Words  | 3 Pages

    Truman Capote forms a close relationship with convicted murderer, Perry Smith, and allows his own personal perception of Perry to influence his story. Capote repeatedly puts emphasis on the fact that Perry comes from a troubled background and portrays him as a victim rather than a murderer. Perry confesses to a night he “remembers [his] mother was 'entertaining' some sailors while [his] father was away.... And [his] father, after a violent struggle, threw the sailors out and proceeded to beat [his] mother. [He] was frightfully scared" (265). Capote includes Perry’s recollections of his abusive father and alcoholic mother to evoke sympathy from the audience and further stress Perry’s general demeanor of innocence. Capote also chooses to highlight Perry’s horrific experience of when “[his] mother put [him] to stay in a Catholic orphanage. The one where the Black Widows were always at [him]. Hitting [him]. Because of wetting the bed” (152). In this section Capote incorporates short, emotionless sentences to emphasize the terrible conditions that Perry succumbed to at the orphanage. Capote also describes the nuns by using the metaphor “black widows” to further grow the audience’s caring feelings towards Perry. As the color black is usually as...

    Read More

  • Cold Blood

    1000 Words  | 2 Pages

    Perry Smith was a short man with a large torso. At first glance, “he seemed a more normal-sized man, a powerful man, with the shoulders, the arms, the thick, crouching torso of a weight lifter. [However] when he stood up he was no taller than a twelve-year old child” (15). What Smith lacked in stature, he made up in knowledge. Perry was “a dictionary buff, a devotee of obscure words” (22). As an adolescent, he craved literature and loved to gain insight of the imaginary worlds he escaped into, for Perry’s reality was nothing less than a living nightmare. “His mother [was] an alcoholic [and] had strangled to death on her own vomit” (110). Smith had two sisters and an older brother. His sister Fern had committed suicide by jumping out of a window and his brother Jimmy followed Fern’s suit and committed suicide the day after his wife had killed herself. Perry’s sister, Barbara, was the only normal one and had made a good life for herself. These traumatic events left Perry mentally unstable and ultimately landed him in jail, where he came into acquaintance with Dick Hickock, who was in jail for passing bad checks. Dick and Perry became friends and this new friendship changed the course of their lives forever. Hickock immediately made note of Perry’s odd personality and stated that there was “something wrong with Little Perry. Perry could be such a kid, always wetting his bed and crying in his sleep. And often [Dick] had seen him sit for hours just sucking his thumb. In some ways old Perry was spooky as hell. Take, for instance, that temper of his of his. He could slide into a fury quicker than ten drunk Indians. And yet you wouldn’t know it. He might be ready to kill you, but you’d never know it, not to look at it or listen to it” (108). Perry’s short fuse and dysfunctional background were the two pieces to Perry’s corrupt life puzzle that soured and tainted the final “picture”.

    Read More

  • The Role Of The American Dream In In Cold Blood

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    He grew up in a different environment with a broken family with no apparent dreams. As a young boy his parents separated and he was forced to go with his mother. He later ran away to be with his father who turned him down and ended up being abandoned by his family completely. He then came to stay at a catholic orphanage, where he was abused by nuns and caregivers. His father finally decided to take him into his care and together they got away and traveled, ending his education before passing the third grade which bothered him as he became older. Perry joined the marines and army, then came back to relocate his father. Him and his father had a breakthrough over starvation, leaving Perry with no one else to turn to and therefore getting involved in committing crimes. Once he got caught and jailed, his mother had died and his brother and sister had both committed suicide. By all his experiences we can say Perry definitely lived a different life and his family portrayal was very different from the Clutters. After so much abandonment and abuse, we can understand why he almost feels nothing and how growing up has affected him. The American Dream for Perry might not have been a “perfect family” but may have been to find something with order, and control. The dream Perry’s family would be focused on is reaching a decent life as their past has been

    Read More

  • The Clutter Family In In Cold Blood By Truman Capote

    1312 Words  | 3 Pages

    Truman makes the readers feel sympathetic regarding Perry situation. He displays how Perry is more of a victim for having abusive adults in his life and sibling suicides. Perry’s childhood was an incredibly rough one. His parents were divorced, his mother became an alcoholic and paid little attention to her children, he was eventually taken in by his father after being in orphanages for a while, he was taken out of school and traveled around with his father and was isolated from people his age with who he could become friends with and learn actual social skills. Perry elaborates on one of his experiences as a child when he says, “I was severely beaten by the cottage mistress, who had called me names and made fun of me in front of all the boys” (pg. 275). Truman shows empathy toward Perry because of the similarities in both of their childhoods. This shows some of the immense psychological damage that was done to him as a kid that later impacted his overall character as an adult and contributed to him eventually killing the Clutter

    Read More

More about Portrayed as Evil was He

Open Document