Themes of community, family, and mental illness in the book In Cold Blood by Truman Capote - Research Paper Example

Themes of community, family and mental illness in Truman Capote’s “In Cold Blood” Truman Capote’s book In Cold Blood, categorized as a new genre of its kind in the literary field. According to Hollewell, Truman Capote has classified his piece as a non-fictional novel and a new invention in literature. The adequately thrilling book is an organized narration of cold murder in a middle class village of Holcomb in the state of Kansas in the United States of America. Capote’s book gives details of how Clutter’s quadruplet family succumbed to death from a cold bloody murder planned and executed by the two parolees, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. The clutter is portrayed as a well to do family of six who started from a humble background. At the time of the murder, Clutter was said to have graduated into a successful farmer and a generous employee who is admired by many people in his community. Capote in writing his book brings out certain pertinent ideas on the American living that are artistically captured in creatively organized themes. This paper examines the themes of community, family, and mental illness as portrayed in Capote’s In Cold Blood and how they are intertwined in describing a true American Countryside life. Community The role of the community in a Native American countryside life is pleasingly analyzed in Capote’s book by examining the organization of the community and the role played by the community members to each other in their bid to co-exist. Holcomb village is pictured as a middle class American village characterized by people of different caliber. According to Gibson, the Clutter is said to be one among the other members who can be graded as successful members of the Holcomb community and his status earns him a lot of respect from the whole community and in the whole state as a generous employer. The family is highly regarded as having started off from a humble background to their then state. Clutter is also described to have employed several people on his farm whom he treats fairly well by paying them rather handsomely. (Gibson) This shows the essence and the source of respect he earns himself, which enables him to live in harmony with the rest of the family around. The community members respect the Clutters because of his kindness despite his status despite the material wealth he owns as compared to the surrounding neighborhood and this is evidenced in the shock and sympathy with which the whole village receives the news about their murder. Capote describes a friendly community as one where the members live in harmony with each other regardless of one’s social status and the Clutter’s death is a revelation to the security threat in the region that a long time has co-existed in a peaceful environment. (Capote) This is contrasted with the Smith’s community, which is rather brutal, and each one is not concerned about the welfare of the other. Smith’s father is an example in this case who continuously batters his wife to an extent that they divorce. Moreover, the situation in the Smith’s village is expended when the Smith’s family is torn apart due to constant quarrels, he runs away from home and finding no friends to confide in, he engages himself in crimes influenced by the bitter experiences and neglect he had been subjected. No one cares about him despite the ordeal he undergoes, Guest further asserts that his beating and humiliation by cottage mistress result from his maturity malfunction. Out of loneliness, Smith is most likely lured into criminal offenses, in order to avenge his bitter experiences, that lands him in and out of detention several times. Smith’s coincidental meeting with Dick who takes advantage of his situation is probably augmented by lack of care and intervention by the surrounding people and family friends. Even after he has landed into bad company the community members are still silent about this and no one intervenes to offer comfort or counseling to their troubled fellow. This only accelerates the bitterness and cruelty in Smith making him to engage himself in serious offenses such as battery and robbery. From Thomason’s point of view, the community acts like a big family and always has a very crucial role to play in molding the characters of a person to determine the kind of persons that live amongst them, where the community members do not care, the negative characters developed by her members becomes detrimental to them. This is seen in the effects of Smith and Dick who express their negative traits by killing the Clutter’s. Family Besides, the theme of the role of the family in determining the characters of their children is also encompassed in Capote’s book. Family life is one of the key factors determining the characters of an individual according to Capote’s book Cold Blood. It is true that the way a child is raised certainly dictate his or her characters. A wrong family upbringing leads to the growth of bad characters in the child and vice versa. Three main families are portrayed in Capote’s book; Thomason notices that the Clutter’s family symbolizes the supreme veracity of an ideal rural American family. (Thomason) It is described as well behaved, organized and upright in all manners, which earn them respect in the entire village. Perry on the other hand, who later on eliminating them, represents a family that is torn apart and the children lacking a proper upbringing. The fact that Capote’s two daughters had moved out of their home and started their own lives separately only shows the nature of responsibility that had been inculcated in them by their parents. Their lives are smooth and are free from any offensive acts. Dick’s childhood life is not horrific as that of Smith. His childhood periods indeed did not express any sign of cruelty or disregard like Smith’s life. However, his parents are represented to be overprotective of him. Besides, he showed no real contempt for his family or his early days. His initiation into maturity nevertheless reveals his anomalous tendencies, for instance he says “I think the main reason why I went there (the Clutter home) was not to rob them but to rape the girl” (Capote). Dick’s life is also represented to be full of violence and criminal offenses and finally the murder of the Clutter’s family. Unlike the case of Smith, his parents being overprotective on him to an extent that they cannot correct him even when he does wrong contribute to Dick’s irregular acts. He therefore fails to recognize the prime difference between wrong and right and does not understand his life as well. The two murderers’ infant leaves are described to be very different. However, the differences finally bear negative influences in their minds by setting in the immoral wits mindset. Perry’s criminally dominated life is an expression of the termination of his relationship with his folks. The nature of one’s kinship ties draws a broad dimension of the person’s life whether he can lead a happy life that is successful and self-reliant. (Long and Julie) The clutters’ radiant life is a proof of this. Dick’s parents however exaggerate the positive child upbringing capabilities to the extent that Dick becomes spoiled. In a bid to raise his family well, Dick finds himself trapped within the fierce arms of the law. His success is driven by fantasies and cheap success. The two paroles are also portrayed to be harboring the rather decayed character of homosexuality as argued by Capote. Even though this is repressed in them, there are evidences of such acts in the book. Despite Dick having a wife whom he claims to have loved so much that he is able to do anything including murder in order to lead a happy life with her, homoerotic desires forms the main foundations of his relationship with Smith. Smith’s poor, lonely and neglected childhood backgrounds must have contributed a great deal to his engagement into homosexuality with Dick who took advantage of his vulnerability in order to achieve his hideous mission at the Clutters. At one instance, Capote reveals the relationship between Smith and Dick stressing the reason for their close interactions that gives a hint of why smith’s self- representation is determined by Dick’s opinion about him. (Capote) Largely, Smith and Dick’s characters are highly influenced by their ego. The interpersonal dynamics in the two help in shaping their ego in different ways depending on each one’s upbringing. Smith is said to be so sensitive to scorning words and would not allow anyone to criticize him. His psychiatrist remarks that Smith is “overly sensitive to criticism that others make of him, and cannot tolerate being made fun of. He is quick to sense slight or insults in things others say” (Capote), probably this is the trick that Dick used to entice Smith to kill Clutter having been familiar with this for a long time. The ever-common violence in the smith’s home as well as neglect both by the parents after their separation and the community’s unconcern is the key pillars that laid the foundation for this trait in Smith’s life. His life has been full of a strong desire to revenge, always suspecting that no one around is a friend apart from those with whom they have been classmates. Smith feels sympathetic and disillusioned towards the end of the book. During the trial process, he wants to admit having committed all the murders alone, he feels sorry for himself having committed such an offense. His ego was therefore not self chosen but triggered by his parents’ violent reactions and with which he struggles for his entire life trying to change (Morris). Dick on the other hand is more confident even during the trial process; he denies every allegation made on him and blames everything on Smith. Dick does not feel sorry for himself having been caught in such an act. His family background also influences his ego. However, unlike Smith, Morris argues, that Dick has voluntarily chosen the kind of lifestyle he is living as a result of his parents’ deficiency in correcting him. Here Capote succeeds in creating two different characters with different life dynamics shaping their traits into a common destiny. The theme of family therefore has been made so pertinent in the novel by leaving the ball in the court of the parents whom as he demonstrates are endowed with the responsibility of shaping the characters of their children. He illustrates the two extreme points by creating the Clutters’ family on one end and Smith and Dick’s families on the other end to represent the good and the bad or crooked families respectively. Mental illness Mental illness is another theme comes out vividly in this literary piece. Smith and Dick’s criminal engagements are believed to have been influenced by fundamental mental complications. Smith is found to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia while Dick has had brain damage from a car accident while still young. (Garrett) The mental conditions of the two worries the trial team who are left torn between two thoughts of whether the two should be held accountable for the offenses they committed given their state of unsound mind. Some scholars believe their state of mind the genesis of all the crimes the two commit. Dick constantly addressed Smith as baby, Honey, Sweetie, words that are only used to address the feminine gender by the male gender. The act of homosexuality here was carried out at the time when the practice was highly offensive in America and the Federal Bureau of Investigators was keen on those who committed the offense. (Coniff) Conclusion In conclusion, Capote’s book In Cold Blood has received high ranking in the literary world as one of its own. Being a journalist by profession, he uses his skills in language to draw a clear mental picture of this American community and a mirror for the whole world as well. The book brings out the themes of community, family and mental illnesses in a more complex way intertwining them in a more objective and informative way that the book is not only entertaining but also informative in a deeper sense. The three themes traverse the entire text further emphasizing on the need for the reader to consider them as the basic needs of a moral and careful upbringing for children. It is therefore a very suitable book worth reading by anyone willing to have fun and get informed at the same time. Works cited Capotoe, Truman. In Cold Blood. New York: Random House, 1965. Coniff, Brian. "Psychological Accidents': In Cold Blood and Ritual Sacrifice." A Journal ofContemporary Thought 35.1 (1993): 77-94. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. Garrett, George. "Then and Now: in Cold Blood Revised." The Virginia Quarterly Review Summer 1996: 467-74. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg. Vol. 164. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. Gibson, Wesley. Beacham's Encyclopedia of popular fiction. Ed. Kirk H. Beetz. Vol. 4. Beacham: Osprey, 1996. Guest, David. "Trueman Capotes's In Cold Blood: The Novel as Prison." American Novel and Capital Punishement (1997): 104-30. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg. Vol. 164. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. Hollewell, John. "Capote's In Cold Blood: The Search for a Meanigful Design." Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture and Theory 1997, 53 ed.: 97 116. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg. Vol. 164. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 18 Sept. 2012. Long, Robert. E and M. Ellot Julie. Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Carl Rollyson. Vol. 2. Salem: Pasadena, 2010. Morris, Bernard. Masterplots. Ed. Laurence W. Mazzeno. 4. Vol. 5. Salem: Pasadena, 2011. Thomason, Elizabeth. No- fiction Classics for Students: Presenting Analysis Context, and Criticism on Non Fiction Works. Vol. 2. Gale: Detroit, 2001. Read More