Are People Really as they Seem?

To enhance the mystique of the plotline, Capote uses an effect known as double vision. This technique describes people, objects, and places in a way that is atypical from the preconceived notions others would originally have about them. More often than not it refers to a façade that causes the subject to appear one way, when in reality they are the total opposite. Perry Smith is a prime example of one who attains these misguiding appearances. When observed, Marie Dewey notes that his face has “a peculiar refinement; the lips and nose seemed nicely made, and she thought the eyes, with their moist, dreamy expression, rather pretty—rather, in an actorish way, sensitive” (164). Because Perry bears such vulnerable traits, many mistake him as innocent, causing him to earn undeserved trust. Another character who has the ability to lure others in by their appearance is Roy Church. People have “been known to mistake Church for a kindly little man, somebody’s bald-headed, pink-cheeked uncle” (217). With such deceiving looks, Church is able to surprise his victims with his true frightening manner, and thus elicit information from them. Lastly, Nancy Clutter also possesses looks unrepresentative of her personality. To others she appears as “a pretty girl, lean and boyishly agile, and the prettiest thins about her were her short-bobbed, shining chestnut hair (brushed a hundred strokes each morning, the same number at night)and her soap-polished complexion, still faintly freckled and rose-brown from last summer’s sun. But it was her eyes, wide apart, darkly translucent, like ale held to the light, that made her immediately likeable, that at once announced her lack of suspicion, her considered and yet so easily triggered kindliness” (19). Because she is able to maintain such a perfect exterior, she gets people to believe that she is flawless, when in fact she is revealed to be a bit of a frantic mess. These misleading appearances not only lure others in, but make them much more complex and interesting.