Sunday, November 15, 2009

In this third volume of In Cold Blood, Capote continues his development of Perry as perpetually weak and feminine and Dick as brutish and cold. The volume starts with a man who was in jail with Dick and knows him quite well. He recalls a conversation about their past jobs and how Dick was, “full of brag about… nurses and all what he’d done with them in the back of the ambulance” (161). This image from a close friend of Dick’s shows Dick to be cold and uncaring about anyone but himself. Whether it is true or not is irrelevant because the only reason Capote included it is because he wants to create a bad image about Dick in order to put most of the blame for the murders on him. Capote does this again when Alvin Dewey receives mug shots of the murders. His wife, Marie, takes one look at them and compares their eyes, “the eyes, with their moist, dreamy expression, rather pretty-rather, in an actorish way, sensitive… Though not as mean, as forbiddingly “criminal,” as the eyes of Hickock” (164). This description of both Dick and Perry adds to the reader’s perception of the both of them. Marie’s description of Perry adds to the idea that he is a bit effeminate and weak. By doing this, the reader almost refuses to acknowledge that Perry was the one who actually pulled the trigger of the shotgun. Dick’s depiction makes it blatantly clear how Capote would like us to see Dick, as a ‘criminal.’ Capote does this same comparative description in an ex-employer of Dick’s recollection of how close they were. Once, the man had Dick and Perry over for dinner, after which, “ He [Perry] played the guitar and sang some songs, and him and Dick entertained everybody with a weight-lifting act” (168). Once again, the depiction of Perry shows him to be sensitive, compassionate, soft and everything else that is associated with guitar playing. By doing this, Capote encourages the reader to almost smile when they think of Perry because he is caring and plays beautiful music to entertain people. On the contrary, Dick is shown to be everything that is associated with weight lifting, that is, brutish and strong, but not very bright. Although Perry participated in Dick’s act, it shows that although he is strong, but we know him to be kind and intelligent. After only about ten pages, Truman Capote continues to force us to keep our assumptions about Dick and Perry so that the idea of the murders can be blamed on Dick, and Perry gets let off the hook a little bit.

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