The main theme of Truman Capote's jounalistic novel
In Cold Blood is Nature vs. Nurture. Working
as a journalist for The New Yorker, Capote noticed the article
about the murder of the Clutter family in Holcomb, Kansas, a small farm town in which
people were so secure that they did not lock their doors at night, and became intrigued
by the crime. When Capote went to Kansas with a ‘‘meaningful design’’ of his own in
which he originally intended to find out why the crime was committed, he soon discovered
that he became more interested in the personalities of criminals. During his jounalistic
investigations, Capote was intrigued by the one murderer, Perry Smith, who shot the
members of the Clutter family in what was labeled as a psychological
accident.
To some critics, In Cold
Blood examines the critical role of psychological accidents in the recreation
of the crimes. However, critic Phyllis Frus, holds that Capote's method affords the
murders' explanation and rationalization within a framework of middle-class ideology and
psychological analysis. Thus, Capote's method used for the writing of his book is
"interpretive journalism." Intrigued by the background of Perry Smith, Capote explored
the idea that the half-Irish and half-Indian Smith was a tragic formula, concluding from
information that he gathered that Smith was innately intelligent, talented, and
sensitive, but his psyche was
warped and eroded by neglect, abuse, humiliation,
and unresolved emotional
trauma.
Perry Smith's mother
was an alcoholic who died as she aspirated, his siblings committed suicide, his father
was a transient who kept Perry from establishing himself and acquiring friends at any
school. Capote's account of Perry's having taught himself to paint, play the guitar,
and speak with impeccable grammar, along with his repulsion of any vulgar literature
while incarcerated leads the reader to believe that Smith was, indeed, victimized by his
horrible environment.
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