In Cold Blood : Nature Or Nurture?

Perry is not able to become friends with Dick because of Perry’s personality, so he has to create a story to make Dick want to be associated with him. Perry’s inability to create relationships with people goes back to the Reactive Attachment Disorder. Since he never develops a healthy relationship, this affects the way that he attempts to relate to people while in jail. Starting the relationship with a lie is just one of the few things wrong with Dick and Perry’s relationship. Perry starts a connection with him and can not let go. Dick treats Perry like he is either his child or his wife, never his friend. Despite this fact, Perry stays with him because Dick is a person who will withstand Perry and not leave

Dick, the main character in Ragged Dick, is a man that fits every trait Alger describes in the story. He is a man who has a mediocre job, and is a very hard worker. Throughout the story, signs show us that Dick is a man who has ambition and is very determined to one day get away from his poor

Although Perry is the one who killed the family, Dick plans the crime with ease due to his evil characteristics and guilt free conscious, therefore vulnerability can easily be molded by manipulation.

In the ongoing debate about whether nature or nurture is the primary force shaping a person’s character, Capote comes down firmly on the side of nurture and environment in his book In Cold Blood.

He opened a savings account for himself and deposited all of the money he had, except for the correct amount to pay change to Mr. Greyson, whom he owed from a shine the prior day. In paying his debt to Mr. Greyson, he earned his trust and bought himself an invitation to Sunday school and eventually lunch with the gentleman and his family. This was the start to Dick’s better life of saving his money, renting his own room, and meeting Fosdick, his new friend and private tutor. One day he ran an errand with Fosdick for his employer and the two rode the ferry when they witnessed a young boy, the age of 6, fall of the edge of the boat and into the water. Dick, not hearing the father’s offer of a reward for anyone who would save his son, dove in to save the boy anyhow. Once the boy had been returned safely to his father, the father was so grateful to Dick that he took him to have his wet suit dried and provided him with a suit nicer than his original suit from Frank. Dick then went in to speak with the man, as per his request, and was offered a position in his counting room with a wage of ten dollars per week, considerably higher than his wage would be at any other store or counting room. Dick gleefully accepted his offer and lived content knowing how hard he had worked for this day.

The dynamic between Dick and Perry was always fragile and dominated by a need to determine who was more masculine, who was in charge. This is made easier by simply blaming the other one for any negative consequences. Dick and Perry weren't particularly fond of one another; they had differing hopes, long-term goals, and motives. A dynamic as fragile as this was easily shattered after their arrests, leading to quick confessions and a solution to the puzzling quadruple

A debate on whether or not Perry Smith was more controlled by nature and nurture when committing crimes is a hot topic. Most solemnly believe that this is what manipulated the actions that Perry took. According to www.simplypsychology.org, "Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic inheritance and other biological factors. Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after conception e.g. the product of exposure, experience and learning on an individual." Due to Perry Smith's exposure to abuse, the abandonment emotionally and physically from his family, and influential behavior from Dick, it led him to making extreme actions such as committing murder and other crimes.

motor company, "when I [Dick] had an automobile wreck with a company car. I was in the hospital several days with extensive head injuries" (Capote 278). The car accident caused his face to be slightly maligned, and, as concluded by Dr. Jones, caused residual brain damage and instability in his personality (Capote 286). Dick's father also confirmed that Dick had changed after the crash, expressing that "He just wasn't the same boy" (Capote 255). After experiencing the crash, many parts of Dick's life began to go downhill. His marital life twisted woefully, and when all was said and done, he had gone through 2 marriages. He did not have a steady job anymore, and he began to commit petty crimes, such as writing bad checks and stealing. The latter resulted in him being in jail, where he had met Perry, who was behind bars for burglary as well, among other charges. Dick and Perry had both agreed to kill the Clutters, however when the time came, Dick showed signs of doubt and lingered, while Perry had almost no hesitation. This seems to point back to each man's past, where Perry, who had a rougher childhood, did not seem to think twice about killing the family. His scarred adolescence points to a more cold-hearted, bitter, and lonely person, while Dick's more favorable youth showed signs of mercy and conscience.

What the readers know of Dick’s past is very little, as Capote works to characterize him through flashbacks the readers know it was his plan to kill the Clutters and he does have some family “there were those Dick claimed to love: three sons, a mother, a father, a brother—persons he hadn’t dare confide his plan to(Capote 106).” But Capote characterizes Dick more so through descriptions of his habits than through his memories. “Inez was a prostitute…she was eighteen and Dick had promised to marry her. But he had also promised to marry Maria, a women of fifty who was a widow of a very rich banker(Capote 118-119)” Dick is shown throughout the book as someone who uses people to get what he wants, he calls on Perry to help him with his plan, he uses women for sex and money while making promises he never intends to keep. “If he knew Dick, and he did—now he did—would spend the money right away on vodka and women(Capote 119). Capote does not draw any sympathy from the readers, Dick is perceived as an emotionless man who pretends to believe in people and want the same

He verbally demands to be removed from the conversation. He also subtly bullies Perry by calling him a baby for mentioning his worries. Dick finds Perry’s confusion and commentary rather irritating because it is a reminder of the murder.

The scene at the beach shows some clues about Dick’s secret. Based on the scene at the beach you can tell Dick can’t hide his sexually attraction to the little girl. The quote “The child accepted the gift, where upon dick smiled and winked at her” (201). Helps prove that Dick is attracted to the little girl and has no control over it. Another quote that helps support Dick’s attraction to the young girl is “He took the child’s hand and said, “You’re my baby girl, my little sweetheart” (201). He thought by being charming, the little girl would like him and be with him but she didn’t. He was trying to make the little girl fall for him since he was attracted to her.

In order to paint an image of Dick as a controlling and condescending killer, Capote uses a simile to describe his stature. On page thirty-one capote describes Dick’s physique:“as though his head had been halved like an apple, then put together a fraction off center.” (Capote 31). Because Dick is described as abnormal it helps Capote achieve his purpose of demonstrating that Dick was a true monster who changed and molded Perry from a man into a killer. Capote describes Dick in this way to set Dick apart from a normal human being. A normal person could not have changed someone but because Dick was not normal he was able to change Perry. Because Dick is not normal he will be seen as the true

The dynamic partnership between Dick and Perry stems from their egos, or lack thereof. Perry is especially self-conscious, and his behavior as presented in the book is due to his sense of lacking and

The first time Pastor Dan told Lev to run, Lev tried to come up with every way possible to prove to himself that he wasn’t told to run from the Unwinding. After all, it’s hard to undo a life full of brainwashing in one event. The second time he gets to talk to Pastor Dan though, he gets angry when he finds out his suspicions are correct. For the rest of the book from that moment on, we see a completely different version of Lev in his actions and thinking. For example, before Lev had his talk with Pastor Dan at the school, he thought negatively on people who were “bad”. “It did bother him, though, when kids called him things like "dirty Unwind." As if he was like those other kids, whose parents signed the unwind order to get rid of them.” (Shusterman 25) Later in the book he lives the life of a “dirty unwind” and later almost goes through the terrible sin of being a clapper. Dickie may be a happy and jolly kid who just wants to do good in life, but if he survived the test, I could see him undergoing a transformation in character like Lev

Dick's ideal, was to marry the perfect woman, Nicole, write his fantastic book ‘psychology for psychiatrists' and be the best psychiatrist in the world. At the beginning of his career all of these things were attainable, but slowly each one of these things slipped away to falter his life. These things were not only just an ideal or a plan in life, they were a necessity for Dick. He dreamed of them all and it was from then on that it became an obsession. This lead to Dick's belief that his life couldn't be fulfilled unless all of these things were obtained.