Monday, November 16, 2009

Perry, along with all his siblings are shown as classic heroes, having tragic flaws and subject to fate, to enhance a feeling of pity toward Perry. In reminiscing about her family members Perry’s sister, Barbara recalls that each one had a specific flaw that ruined their life. Her sister Fern, despite her mother dying from alcohol, drinks too much and it is with a drink in hand that Fern “falls” from a hotel window. Jimmy, Barbara and Perry’s older brother is courageous and graduates at the top of his class. Yet he eventually commits suicide because of his single flaw, jealousy (185-186). The fact that each member of Perry’s family is cursed with a flaw enhances the sense of pity for Perry that has already been established throughout the book. If it is not only him, but Perry’s whole family that has flaws then it cannot be Perry’s fault. Perry’s violent reactions are something that he is born with, something that he cannot prevent showing that it is not his fault that he snaps and kills the Clutters. Thinking about the depressing events that occur to her siblings, leads Barbara to the thought that her family: “Shared a doom against which virtue was no defense” (185). No matter how good or virtuous they may be, fate has doomed the Smith family and there is nothing they can do to prevent their tragic flaw from taking its toile. If the flaws that run through Perry’s family are caused by fate then they are inevitable and Perry cannot be blamed for what fate as brought him to do.

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