Perry's most Dangerous Weapon

In my reading of part three of In Cold Blood so far, Perry has shown blame and envy for the lives of others. In a fight with his sister, Barbara, Perry says, “Oh, the man I could have been! But that bastard [Perry’s father] never gave me a chance. He wouldn’t let me go to school…Dumb. Ignorant. That’s the way he wanted me to be. So that I could never escape him. But you, Bobo. You went to school. You and Jimmy and Fern. Every damn one of you got an education. Everybody but me.” (p185) Perry is jealous that his sister is married with a family, something he always wanted because he thinks it iss something “a man ought to have.” (p98) He sees that she has broken free of the bad position that they were left in as children. Perry is very jealous, but in fear of losing his own pride he blames those around him. Capote was aware of this, and wrote, “Envy was constantly with him [Perry]; the Enemy was anyone who was someone he wanted to be or who had anything he wanted to have.” (p200) And the jealous resentment Perry feels is his most dangerous weapon because it feeds into emotionally unstable anger. Capote writes of Perry’s dangerous side: “One fine day he’d pay her [Barbara] back, have a little fun—talk to her, advertise his abilities, spell out in detail the things he was capable of doing to people like her, respectable people, safe and smug people.” (p194) Perry’s resentment for the people who he envies possibly played a part in not only his criminal life but also his murdering of the Clutters.