The Kansas State Penitentiary

Perry, Dick, Floyd, Willie-Jay, and many more all served time in the Kansas State Penitentiary. And there seems to be something that binds them all together even after they leave. Clearly Perry and Dick are together, bound by this service and their murder of the Clutters. But this applies to the others as well. In section one it is revealed that "When he [Perry] received Dick's invitation, and realized that the date Dick proposed for his coming to Kansas more or less coincided with the time of Willie-Jay's release, he knew what he must do." (45) Perry's real motive, or at least a real motive, was to accompany Dick in order to see Willie-Jay. Floyd is eventually sucked in to this bond too -- albeit in a different way -- when he essentially incriminates them. The point is all four of these men's stories are intertwined since they went to this prison. Dick and Perry wouldn't have met, Perry wouldn't have known Willie-Jay, and Floyd wouldn't have known who did it. They are tied to each other. This seems somewhat like the great chain of being to me. All of their stories are connected, and when one does something it affects the others, like Floyd providing evidence helping the authorities track down the murderers. The great chain of being applies to other aspects of the novel too like Holcomb being affected by the murders: it just seems that the criminals' time in Lansing together strengthened the effect of the great chain. It is also interesting that seeing each other actually breaks the rules of their paroles. Even though it is against the law, they still are bound together. If it weren't for this connection, events would have turned out differently, if the murder would have even happened at all. Actually the entire story line is dependent on this bond. It causes the story to move forward: some of the most important things that occur in the story are the murder and the search for the murderers. Both of these would have been different if these criminals' lives didn't intersect as vastly.