Aaron Bagaoisan

American Literature-1/2
4 May. 2016
Mirage of Murder
Truman Capotes In Cold Blood is a truly thrilling novel that keeps the reader entranced
by intertwining reality and fiction, thus creating the first novel of its kind called imaginative
nonfiction. Capote puts an emphasis on providing very detailed backgrounds for the characters
so that the reader can hopefully have a better understanding of how events lead up to one
another. Readers can analyze this book through a psychoanalytic lense to fully understand the
main characters and the plot. The basic assumption of the psychoanalytic theory is that a persons
environment as a child affects their thoughts, actions and behaviors in adulthood. This theory is
vividly shown in Capotes masterpiece In Cold Blood. The two main characters, Dick and Perry,
are both people who can be analyzed through a psychoanalytic lens. Reading In Cold Blood with
a psychoanalytic lense, the readers can soon infer that the environments the characters grew up in
heavily influenced their actions later in life. Dick and Perry are the two biggest examples of this
observation. Their motives can easily be reflected as actions caused by moments in their
childhood.
Perry Smith lived an agonizing childhood full of twists and turns that all dragged him
into agony which would last his whole life. Most would describe his upbringing as brutal,
alienated and lonely, all the opposite that a child should not experience. The events that occurred
to Perry as a child can be looked through a psychoanalytic lense to understand many prominent
events in the book that may lead up to why he committed murders, deceived people and most of
all, acted ruthlessly. One instance we can look at from Perrys childhood that affected him
heavily is when he lived at an orphanage after his mother gave him up. They hated me, too.

For wetting the bed. And being half-Indian. There was this one nurse, she used to call me
nigger and say there wasnt a difference between niggers and Indians. Oh, Jesus, was she an
Evil Bastard! Incarnate. What she used to do, shed fill a tub with ice-cold water, put me in it,
and hold me under till I was blue (Capote 132). Perry never contributed to receiving this kind of
brutal treatment. Perry always craved love and support from his parents that was never
reciprocated back to him. He was only forced down a path that led him to despise the world.
However that is not the only example of Perry becoming emotionally exhausted. Even when he
was finally able to live with his father, he was still not shown the support that he expected for his
interests. Whole sections of me Dad was ignorant of. Didnt understand an iota of. Like I could
play I could play a harmonica first time I picked one up. Guitar, too. I had this great natural
music ability. Which Dad didnt recognize. Or care about. I liked to read, too. Improve my
vocabulary. Make up songs. And I could draw. But I never got any encouragement- from him or
anybody else (Capote 133). Perry adored his father when they first started living together, as he
thought everything would become better, someone there to support him through all his decisions
and daily life. But this was quite the opposite. Perry was never encouraged to explore his
interests, only what his father wanted him to do. This further added to the lack of needs that
Perry always wanted fulfilled. Perry says that It would have been O.K. if only I hadnt grown
up; the older I got, the less I was able to appreciate Dad (Capote 133). The pain and suffering
that Perry received caused him to act and think irrationally. Perry has never had the chance to
genuinely vent his feelings and find help, it just all seemed to pile on him until he could not hold
it in anymore. He let out all the pain and suffering on the Clutter family. And it wasnt because
of anything the Clutters did. They never hurt me. Like other people. Like people have all my life.
Maybe its just that the Clutters were the ones who had to pay for it (Capote 290). Perry is not

able to make a legitimate conclusion as to why he killed the Clutter family. Dr. Satten, a
psychological specialist who was assigned to check on Perry, described it as a concept of
murder without apparent motive (Capote 301). This is a perfect example of Perrys childhood
affecting him as an adult, it is not normal behavior to commit such a crime under normal
circumstances. Perrys fathers treatment towards him as an adolescent seems to impact him
more than just the concept of murder without apparent motive. Truman Capote also chooses to
mention that Perry Smith has only had one girl who made a positive impact on him named
Cookie. He never seemed to have an interest in women but it is different with her. Perry speaks
to Cookie about marriage and love, but never had any intentions of marrying her. Perry gave her
a poem he pretended to write (Capote 98) which suggests that Perry wanted people to view
him as intelligent and artistic but he fails to achieve it which can easily be compared to his
emotions and relationship from his years growing up with his father. Using a psychological lense
to analyze the book, the readers can infer that events which occurred in Perrys upbringing has
played huge roles in the decisions that he makes later in life for better or worse. In this case, it
played out tragically towards the end of his life.
Perry Edward Smith however, is not the only person affected mentally by events he
experienced throughout his years as an adolescent. Richard Dick Eugene Hickock has also had
tragic events happen to him; though not in similar fashion to Perry, these events still changed
Dick dramatically. Dick Hickock grew up in a very caring household that did not have a lot of
money, but Dick lived in a part of town where the whole area was living in poverty. Dick lived a
high school experience that many people would envy. He received outstanding grades and was
an all around star athlete in sports. However, Dick feels that life has not been so kind when it
comes to reciprocating all of his hard work. Dick thinks that he is entitled to opportunities he was

not given. For example, he was not able to attend college even though he was a star athlete and
an outstanding student due to a lack of money from his family. Dick is a man who would do
anything to any extent to get what he feels he deserves. This ranges from stealing, lying and even
murder. For instance, after fleeing from the murder, both Dick and Perry are in need of money to
help finance them while they are on the run. To compensate for this, Dick writes bad checks to
many businesses along the way. One example of this is when Dick pretends to be the best man of
Perrys wedding and swooned the salesman into trading wedding clothing for a bad check. From
Perrys point of view, Dick breezed in, breezily introduced Perry to the clerk as a friend of
mine about to get married (Capote 97). Dick never hesitates when he is in the process of
committing the crime. He completes the crime by saying Hot damn! I forgot my wallet. Which
to his partner seemed a ploy so feeble that it couldnt possibly fool a day-old nigger. The clerk,
apparently, was not of that opinion, for he produced a blank check, and when Dick made it out
for eighty dollars more than the bill totaled, instantly paid over the difference in cash (Capote
97). Dick has no respect for other peoples lives and this raises the degree of the crimes he
commits.
When Detective Nye interviews his dad, he claims that the reason why Dick may have
started performing these kinds of actions is due to a car crash that he experienced. But him and
Carol lived too high, kept buying stuff they couldnt nohow afford. And Dick got to writing
checks. I still think the reason he started doing stunts such as that was connected to the smashup. Concussed his head in a car smash-up. After that, he wasnt the same boy (Capote 166).
From a psychoanalytic lense, it can be very easy to infer to why Dick starts to commit crimes
such as writing bad checks. From Dicks dads point of view, it appears that the mischievous acts
that he had been performing such as writing bad checks to keep living a more lavish life, seemed

to come after the fact of the car accident. However, it may also be partly because Dick feels he is
self entitled to many things in life, such as deserving to live a luxurious lifestyle.
A big difference between Dick and Perry is that Dick seems to be completely void of
certain feelings. One emotion that Truman Capote shows Dick is void of is a complete lack of
remorse. There is never any second thought that comes from Dick concerning the murder of the
Clutter family compared to Perry. Perry is portrayed as always obsessing over the Clutter murder
case as we get towards the end of his life realizing his mistakes. Dick on the other hand always
seems to be trying to avoid it. One action that shows he is either completely not empathetic or
trying to avoid the problem is when Perry mentions that after murdering the Clutter family, both
men could not stop laughing. Perry claims that they felt as if they were high when they buried
the evidence and cleaned themselves up. When Dick is examined by his prison psychiatrist, the
doctor suggests that Dick has an attachment disorder. He does not experience any sense of
emotional connection to another person or have any empathy for the consequences of his actions
on anyone. This is the reason why he is able to do the mischievous acts such as the Clutter family
murder he does without feeling remorse. This shows that Dick not being affected at all mentally
from his actions might be a result of events that happened in his childhood.
Fulfilling the needs of a childhood is not just a task, but an asset that should not be taken
lightly. It can very easily create a problem may rampage for a simple price of not giving a child
the love and affection they require. Analyzing In Cold Blood through a psychoanalytic lense, the
readers can infer that a persons environment as a child affects their thoughts, actions and
behaviors adulthood which can be vividly seen through the examples of Dick and Perry. For
instance, Perry always craved for love from his parents, but unfortunately it was not given to

him. In the end, Perrys mental state weakened day by day until he reached a tipping point where
he released all of the pain he has suffered in his lifetime onto the harmless Clutter family.