Perry is arguably the most interesting person in In Cold Blood. His character development is drastic. By the third part, the reader really feels like they know Perry. What also makes Perry interesting is his multiple personalities, or as some like to call it, double vision. Double vision is an idea that we have played with since the beginning of this book, but I haven’t actually seen to much of this until I really got to know who Perry was. At first, we really don’t know who Perry is. “Dick became convinced that Perry was that rarity, ‘a natural killer’…But perhaps it was Dick who had miscalculated, been duped; if so-not if it developed that Perry was, after all, only an ‘ordinary punk’…” (55). I felt like this was the first real insight on Perry’s multiple personalities. Was he a killer or just a punk? As we continue onward, we realize who Perry really is: a punk who is unstable. This creates two sides to him, the side where he is a normal person but asking for love and attention, and the side of him where he is a cold blooded killer. There are many more examples of all of this throughout the second part and into the third part as well. Apart from Dick’s view of Perry as the natural killer, we also see other peoples’ view, one being Perry’s dad. Perry’s dad is wholly convinced that Perry is an innocent boy. Once he makes a mistake he learns from it. (letter starts on page 125). This isn’t the definition of a natural killer, nor an ordinary punk. This is the definition of a boy who is, for the most part “good” but makes mistakes. There are many different views of Perry in ICB and still more will continue to show.
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For the most part I agree with Sunjeev. I agree that what makes Perry the most interesting is his multiple personalities. However I disagree with the statement that Perry is a punk kid who is usually good but made a bad choice. The way I see it is when Perry killed the clutters it was because he snapped, or switched personalities. I believe that Perry has three distinct personalities which become more obvious as the book goes on. The first is the one capote met in jail the one that is the highly intelligent and seemingly kind person. The second is the murderer version of Perry, this one is so evil that he killed Mr. Clutter for looking at him wrong and then proceeded to kill the rest of the family. The third that I have discovered is the one that is apparent sometimes when he is around Dick, this is his manipulative side of him that isn’t interested in others who aren’t his to manipulate. His third personality like I said is very subtle however it helps feed his “natural killer” side and helps get things from his friends that he meets using his nice side, one example of this is how he got capote to get him a lawyer, and books, and food, and other items out of pity and manipulation. One example of how his third side helps his natural killer side is when he hears Dicks plan of how they would at night break in to the house tie every one up and then steal their money while leaving no witnesses. If they truly wanted no witnesses you would think that Perry someone with an IQ far higher than average would think to put on masks to conceal their identity and/or break in at a time when the whole family wouldn’t be there.
ReplyDeleteAs I continued reading into part 3, I noticed further confirmation on Perry’s unstableness, his natural killer side as well as his others. In the scene with Mr. Bell, Perry seems to Mr. Bell “’Nice enough’ shy but amiable” (172). This is Perry’s one side. He sings, he plays his harmonica, and when he had his guitar he would strum that. But his personality changed drastically in the scene. One second he was sitting there singing and playing on his harmonica, the next moment he was holding a rock above Mr. Bell’s head ready to smash his brains out. This is, of course, the natural killer side of him. But, like we saw in Willie-Jay’s letter, Perry can’t stand happiness. And this is further confirmation of this situation. In the scene, “Their [Dick and Mr. Bell’s] laughter irritated Perry; he especially disliked the Mr. Bell’s outburst ... He thought he might vomit, or faint; he felt certain he would if Dick delayed ‘the party’ much longer…Now was the time now.” (174). This quote clearly shows Perry’s hatred towards happiness, or in this case, laughter. Also, the tension in this seem was tremendous. It was almost like Alfred Hitchcock’s scene in rope when the maid lady is cleaning off the table and is about to open the desk and see the dead body in it. The reader gets so tense because the buildup to it is great, but Mr. Bell gets saved…
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