Perry, as a person, does not fit the criteria to commit a crime and be partnered with a man like Dick. At his heart, Perry is a typical person with insecurities and appears to actually be pretty close to normal, however, this sudden change of heart stems from Capote’s intimate relationship with Perry as seen in the movie, Capote.

As discussed in one of my earlier blogs, the reader’s early impression of Perry is that he’s quite out of the ordinary. Beginning with his appearance, his short, deformed legs paired with his oversized muscular torso don’t match and stick out as abnormal. His eating habits are not much better, his breakfast is made up of root beer and aspirin; this is not the typical breakfast for anyone. Finally, his mindset before the murder is pretty casual; he is focused on escaping to Mexico afterward and having women and treasure for the rest of his life. When all of this adds up, Perry is clearly abnormal from his physical build to his mental stability. However, all of the preconceived notions about Perry seem to revoke themselves when reading part 2. Dick and Perry are driving along with a car full of stuff to sell when Perry spontaneously interjects, “I think there must be something wrong with us. To do what we did” (108). Now, of course there is something wrong with a person who murders a family of four for no reason, but a statement like this does not match up with the Perry we thought we knew. The earlier Perry would not feel one bit of regret for their actions. Despite Dick’s rude reaction to this statement, Perry doesn’t give it up and appears to want punishment for the murders by the comments he continues to make.

A change like this in a character is very strange because Capote does not alter Dick’s character in any way; he still remains a jerk. We have already discussed minor changes Capote may have made in the story to make it more eerie, but a change of heart in a character has much more impact. The reader almost understands what Perry is thinking and starts to pity him the slightest bit. Now, this correlates with the film, Capote, in the sense that although Truman wanted to portray Dick and Perry as insane, he still had intimate feelings for Perry. Multiple times in the film Capote lied to Perry about the status of the book or the title because he didn’t want Perry to know that the world was going to see him as a monster. Passages in the book like the aforementioned scene could be a product of Capote’s influence and feelings for the characters in the story.