Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

While often viewed as a commentary on human behavior, In Cold Blood criticizes the American Dream through providing a perspective on equal opportunity vs equal outcome, and how it fits in the whole picture of America. The book does it by providing two extremely contrasting examples of how the American Dream played out. On one hand there is the Clutters which have what is viewed as the traditional American dream. A full loving family, a nice house, stable jobs, and are well known within their small community. Dick and Perry are viewed as their antithesis. Both of them have rougher backgrounds and even rougher outcomes. They are viewed as despicable thugs. While the reader might initially agree with this sentiment, as the book progresses and more information is

For me personally, this book brings up thoughts about the idea of equal opportunity and equal outcome. The big question is do we as Americans deserve either of these, and which one. The book prods this question through the character development and timeline of the characters Dick and Perry. Dick and Perry’s background both play a major role in this. Perry had a childhood full of abuse from many of the adults in his life. His time in an orphanage was tough where he had to deal with abuse such “whipped him for wetting his bed” (Capote 96). The abuse is then further detailed when describing his obsession with a parrot, “As the years went by, the particular torments from which the bird delivered him altered; others - older children, his father, a faithless girl, a sergeant he'd known in the Army - replaced the nuns” (Capote 96). His childhood was bleak compared to Dick’s. Dick’s childhood