Dick and Perry's short autobiographies

Before the trial began, Dr. Jones, the expert who had volunteered to examine Dick and Perry mentally, asked Dick and Perry to write autobiographical statements. This may be one of the most truthful sources of information about the two in the book, because they have nothing left to lose by telling the truth and their lawyers have told them to tell the truth. I'd like to examine these from a sympathy standpoint. Capote's inclusion of large amounts of these speeches hints that he wants the reader to be affected by them. And Perry's speech seems to bring more sympathy than Dick's. Both speeches begin with the writer's childhood and go on to why they turned to crime. Probably the most relevant difference in the speeches which makes the reader feel more sympathy for Perry is the difference in their childhoods. Perry had a horrible childhood. His mother and father fought, he was beaten by them, his parents seperated, he joined a gang, he was in and out of detention houses. Dick on the other hand had "quite the same life as most other boys my [Dick's] own age." (276) Since Perry had a bad childhood we begin at the start of his speech to understand why he turned into such a bad person. Most of what happened to him was a result of his bad parents, and he had nothing to turn to. Dick on the other had oppurtunities. He had good grades. He was good at sports. He even "got offers from two colleges to play ball" (278) but he never attended college. He could have done something, and Perry couldn't have. This in combination with Perry's life in general having been worse makes us feel much more sympathy for Perry.