In Cold Blood Part II - 3.6.16

In Truman Capote’s “non-fiction novel”, In Cold Blood, the two characters of Perry Smith and Dick Hitchcock are presented as the two who murdered the Clutter family. Capote distinguishes the characters two very different ways. Within part two the reader learns a lot more about who Perry really is, we learn a lot about his life, where he came from, and what his life is all about. Meanwhile, the reader does not learn much about Dick’s life. The only thing that I, as a reader, can grasp about Dick is that he is careless about others (obviously, because he is a criminal) and cannot keep still in one place at a time, but also with that not planning ahead for the future — i.e. when he and Perry went to Mexico and had to sell their car and then go to California, which was all unplanned… Basically because the mechanic was only payed two dollars per hour. So, the character Perry is given more background information as we get information about his father and more information about his mother, siblings and his motorcycle accident. So even though both Perry and Dick have committed the same crime, that being murder, I do not view them as equals in the crime that they committed. For example, ""Know what I think?" said Perry. "I think there must be something wrong with us. To do what we did."'" (Capote 67) Within this quote it can be seen that Perry has remorse for what he has done while from the narrator’s point of view it seems that Dick is “annoyed as hell” from what Perry said. With one character showing remorse and the other not it makes me as a reader feel more connected to Perry and less to Dick, and frankly, it makes me feel that Dick is just a psychopath with no motive whatsoever for doing what he did — even though I’m still not sure why he did it and if the answer to that question will be revealed later on. So, in conclusion, Perry and Dick have been distinguished as two different characters and Capote distinguishes the difference between them as one showing remorse for the family’s deaths and even though they commit the same crime, the extensive knowledge provided about Perry’s life makes the reader feel more connected to who Perry is and possibly the partial motives for him committing crimes after he and his father had a falling out.