In Cold Blood: Nature vs. Nurture

                Truman Capote, after researching the Clutter family murder for many years,

masterfully depicts the lives of Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, the reaction of a small town

to a brutal tragedy, and the search for the murderers in his non-fiction novel, In Cold Blood.

Perry and Dick take a chance when Dick learns of a wealthy farmer who keeps a safe in his

house that ends badly for the Clutters and Perry and Dick. Capote enlightens us on the lives

of Perry and Dick, the death row inmates, and his own life in order to show the role that

nature vs. nurture plays in affecting peoples’ actions and thought processes.

            In comparing both Dick and Perry’s childhoods, a vast difference can be seen

between them and yet in the end both men ended up in the exact same place. This raises

the question of whether nature or nurture has a bigger impact on a person overall. 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” (Capote 275). 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 slaying the Clutter family. Dick, on the complete opposite

side of the spectrum, grew up with a normal family that loved and cared for him. He

considered his family to be “semi-poor”. His family was hard-working, loving, and worked

to provide him with a good life. He had an average childhood and had education through

high school. Despite all this he eventually ended up as one of the people who murdered and

robbed the Clutter family. These completely opposite childhoods eventually led to these

men murdering a family of four in hopes of making 10,000 dollars easily. This shows that

both nature and nurture impact a person in their mental and physical capabilities.

            In comparing Perry and Capote’s childhoods, one can see many similarities between

the two. Truman rose above a childhood that was troubled by the divorce of his parents,

long absences of his mother, and multiple migrations around the country. This is similar to

Perry’s childhood in the fact that his parents were divorced, his mother was never really

there due to being constantly drunk, and when he lived with his father he roamed around

the country. Their lives can be seen as two people leaving a house, Truman leaving through

the front door while Perry left through the back. Under different circumstances Truman

could have easily ended up like Perry had he not found is passion in writing. This shows

how slightly different psychological patterns and external events can affect the way a

person acts and thinks.

            In looking at the childhoods of the death row inmates, one can see a wide array of

circumstances that have landed these people on death row. Lowell Lee Andrews had a

fairly wealthy and prosperous family. He was described as a quiet knowledgeable boy and

was known as “The Nicest Boy in Wolcott”. Despite his outer appearance, inside him raged

a killer. He desired to have his family’s estate and the wealth that went along with it. The

way he thought about murdering his family was, “he did not dislike any member of his

family, at least not consciously, murdering them seemed the swiftest, most sensible way of

implementing the fantasies that possessed him” (Capote 312). This shows that despite

having a loving environment during his developmental years, he had an innate difference

that left him with a lack of connection between his emotions and his actions. The

childhoods of George York and James Latham were widely different. George had wealthy

parents and was adored by them and his sister. James, on the other hand, was the child of

poor parents who had no interest in him whatsoever. This goes to show that both a

person’s environment and family can impact them as well as their personal mental psyche.

            Nature and nurture are not mutually exclusive from each other. Overall they both

have a major impact on a person’s actions and mental and emotional development.