Are They Really Friends?

Throughout the majority of reading “In Cold Blood”, the question has always been asked what type of relationship does Dick and Perry actually have. Is it actually a friendship; or something more, or maybe even one based off of lies and deceit. Which ever one it truly may have been had remained absent until now. In this third half of “In Cold Blood” entitled “The Answer”, things truly began to come into the light. We find Dick and Perry apprehended in Las Vegas and beginning to undergo questioning. While being questioned, initially Dick remains calm and collected until accused of being the one that killed the Clutter family. With this accusation looming over his head, Dick soon confesses that it was not him who murdered the Clutters, but an unstable Perry. After discovering that his once viewed “friend” has revealed what took place at the Clutter’s home, Perry admits what has been done stating that he was the one who shot the two upstairs while Dick shoots the two downstairs. What I took away from this section of the reading was that in actuality, Dick never truly cared about Perry at all. Dick was the one who devised the plan of robbing the Clutter family, and truthfully I only believe he needed Perry for a specific set of reasons. If Dick had made the decision to rob the Clutters alone and was caught, he would have gone down without question. One man, one crime, leaving one suspect, resulting in a trail without question centralized around one person. Dick needed, at least, one more person to go along with him in his plan. He required a person that truly couldn’t see what he was planning; someone who was slightly naïve. Perry was a man who liked attention. He had needed to be cared for and loved. Dick exploited this trait along with Perry’s “quickness to kill”, or willingness to if need be that was mentioned in chapters preceding this one. By including Perry into his plan, Dick was able to have an extra person to blame, looking out for himself rather than actually caring for Perry. This chapter seemed to be the climax of the story. Before it things still remained unclear and hidden, there was still a mystery present. “The Answer” brings a lot of things into the light about the relationship of Dick and Perry.