Capote V. Mr. and Mrs. Hickock

While investigator Nye is talking with the Hickocks some of what is said seems to be false, seems as though Dicks parents don’t know as much as they think they know about their son. I think in the interviews Nye has with the Hickocks Capote makes Dick and his family seem more real to me, like I feel like it is easier to relate to the situation, not the murdering and investigation but the parent son relationship. While Mrs. Hickock is first describing Perry to Nye she says “I’m as certain sitting here, Perry Smith was the one put him up to writing them checks”(169), not at all concerned with the fact that her son could be influencing Perry, not Perry influencing him. I think this is the situation that I can relate to. Sometimes people make bad decisions, especially teens, but they hardly ever come right up to saying they did the bad deed, especially if it can be pushed onto the fault of someone else. I see this happen more often with parents, parent one finding out from another parent that their kid was doing bad things with the other parent’s kid. The parents initial reaction is generally no, not my kid, but they still doubt this because they eventually add up to asking their kid if it’s true or not. The kid says no that kid is making it up or put me up to it and the parent, afraid to believe that their kid made a bad decision believes every word of it, going back to the other parent and telling them that it’s their kids fault. I feel like between Capote framing it so that its Dick’s fault and Dick’s parents framing Perry so that it is Perry’s fault for Dick’s bad choice on writing the checks there would be some tension between Capote and Dick’s parents if they ever met and disputed about who put who up to what, just like the parents defending their kids. On a similar note Capote seems to give himself a rather guardian image over Perry throughout the book. This I find funny because the character closest to Capote’s opinion is also the guy who wants to put Perry and Dick away for life for killing the Clutters, Mr. Dewey. This is a slight underlying theme, the guardian of Perry, but it isn’t represented well through Dewey except for section two when Dewey talks about the murder scene and what he speculates had happened, making me at least, feel bad for Perry and angry at Dick.