Barbara's Troubles

In part three of In Cold Blood, Answer, we are introduced to Perry’s only living sister Barbara, formerly called Bobo, Johnson. Barbara seems like the only member of the family who was able to be unaffected by their rocky family history. She has a financially and emtionally stable household with a husband and children. Being the only survivor has had its consequenses though. Capote says, “what tormented her [Barbara] was the thought that in time she, too, would be overwhelmed: go mad, or contract an incurable ilness, or in a fire lose all she valued—home, husband, children.” (183) Barabara’s sister, Fern, turned to alcohol like their mother had and fell out of a window to her death (whether the fall was intentional or not is unclear). She saw Perry’s troubles when he started theiving at age eight. Her brother Jimmy’s emotional problems—which seemed nonexistant as he finished high school with good grades and later got married—eventually caght up with him in his marriage (Jimmy was unfairly paranoid about the loyalty of his wife, and he caused her such misery that she killed herself. Jimmy, seeing what he had done, committed suicide also). Barbara is somewhat consoled by the fact that she is obviously stronger than Fern and Perry, but that Jimmy seemed to “crack” all of a sudden fightens her about the stability of her own sanity.