In particular, the murder of Herb Clutter becomes clear: the father of the Clutter family symbolized, for Perry, all the frustrations and missed opportunities of his own life. As he says later in the book, “I didn't have anything against them, and they never did anything wrong to me--the way other people have all my life. Maybe they're just the ones who had to pay for it." Herb Clutter represents a key figure in some past traumatic configuration: his father? The orphanage nuns who had derided and beaten him? The hated army sergeant? The parole officer who had ordered him to ‘stay out of Kansas’? One of them, or all of them” (302). As well, Perry’s trance-like state while committing the murders is accounted for as a common experience of those with his background and psychological disposition. When Perry is psychologically tested, he shows definite signs of severe mental illness. Because he was neglected as a child, he has developed a paranoia and fear for everyone else in the world. This is shown because he is easily triggered by any feeling of being tricked, slighted or labeled inferior to others.