Just Like The Old Times

In Cold Blood by Truman Capote narrates the story of the multiple murder of the Clutter family in 1959. Capote starts the book by introducing the village of Holcomb, Kansas. It stands on the wheat plains of western Kansas about seventy miles outside of the Colorado border. The owner of the River Valley Farm was Herbert William Clutter, a forty-eight year old man that stood just under five feet ten inches and was a Methodist. His wife,

Bonnie Fox, sadly suffered of clinical depression and would more often than not have nervous attacks and would have to get treatment at the Wesley Medical Center. The couple had three daughters and a son. The eldest daughters had left town to study or to live with families of their own. Still living at Holcomb, fifteen year old Kenyon and sixteen year old Nancy both enjoyed the seclusion of the town and lived happily with their parents. Town darling Nancy, was dating Bobby Rupp; the school basketball hero (who would be later interviewed in order to give evidence to the competent authorities about his girlfriend's murder).

Unlike the Clutter family, Perry Edward Smith and Richard Eugene “Dick” Hickock weren't admired in a community since, sadly, they weren't part of any community. Both men had shared a cell at Kansas State Penitentiary and were now on their way to Holcomb, to commit a crime that would ultimately end their lives, as well as four others. Unlike criminals with a mediocre understanding of the world that are usually depicted in novels and movies, Perry Smith was a literature lover; a poet himself. Dick on the other side, was the father of three children and had been married twice, and had got a divorce twice (not to mention half an hour late to his meeting with Perry but had an IQ of 130 based on an average of 90-110 nevertheless). At the invitation of Dick to rob a family in Holcomb and then flee to Mexico, Perry was more than delighted to start a new life and the night of November 15, 1959; the two convicts advanced towards the Clutter´s residence in a black Chevrolet.

“You are a man of extreme passion, a hungry man not quite sure where his appetite lies, a deeply frustrated man striving to project his individuality against a backdrop of rigid conformity. You exist in a half-world suspended between two superstructures, one self-expression and the other self-destruction. You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you learn to control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you. The flaw? Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occasion. Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy or content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? All right, you think they're fools, you despise them because their morals, their happiness is the source of your frustration and resentment. But these are dreadful enemies you carry within yourself--in time destructive as bullets. Mercifully, a bullet kills its victim.” (Capote, 43-44)

This quote is an excerpt from the farewell letter that Willie-Jay, the only person who Perry thinks ever understood him,  wrote to Perry the day of his departure from jail. I think that this quote tells the reader a lot about not only the type of person Perry is but also about his relationship with his friends, or, in this case; the lack of them. This quote also made me see Perry as a very resentful man with anger issues, but I also think he sums up the basis of human behavior and emotions. He wants to hurt people even though he doesn't have an apparent reason to do so (perhaps that is why he murdered four people that he'd never spoken a word to in his whole life). We are all resentful and feel as if someone else's happiness is the source of our grievance, even if we don't admit it. The unusual thing about Perry is that he does admit it. He was generally bothered by human nonsense and actually tells Dick about his bad habit of wanting everyone to speak with a correct grammar. I also think that this quote is trying to tell us that, although self- destruction and self-expression shouldn't depend on each other, they do (sadly). Perry Smith is just a little bit broken and maybe a little bit lost but, truth is, we all are.

This movie is about a girl who feels lost and can´t express
herself. To find herself, she escapes from her town but leaves
clues to a friends of hers.

“Then, touching the brim of his cap, he headed for home and the day's work, unaware that it would be his last.” (Capote, 13)

Capote uses this quote to describe Herb Clutter's last day of life, and he couldn't have been more right. I think that we will never know if we'll be doing something for the last time until it is too late. We will never know if the last time we see a person is actually the last time they will see us, or anyone. I also think that this quote is very realistic since none of us know when we will die or how it will happen and, if you think about it too much, is actually scary. I just hope that Herb was satisfied with his life since it ended so suddenly but, was Herb Clutter truly happy with his lifestyle? Was he proud of his achievements? Was he ashamed of his accomplishments, whatever they may have been?

I was honestly taken aback by this book. I would not usually read non-fiction books but this book is definitely making me change my mind about the genre. The only guess that I can make from this point of the book is that on later chapters, Capote will narrate the actual murder of the Clutter family. Something else that I absolutely liked about this book is the fact that Truman Capote dedicated this book to Harper Lee who is the author of To Kill A Mockingbird. I was surprised when I found that these two were friends back when Capote was alive (he died in 1984). I genuinely have no clue of what can happen next, the Clutter family were very respected within the community and were admired as well but their success as individuals and as a whole would ultimately lead to their deaths. I know that the Clutter family is going to die in the next pages but what will happen to Perry and Dick? How long will it be until they get caught? How long will it be until they get killed?