Dick vs. Perry

Though both Dick and Perry are equally guilty for the murder, Perry tends to receive more sympathy because he has justification for his insane actions where as Dick does not. People are more resentful toward giving him sympathy because, unlike Perry, he had the means to better his life. Dick “got offers from two colleges to play ball, but never attended any of them” (276). He could have gone to school to lead himself on a path to a more successful future, but instead he chose to take up multiple mechanical jobs. Also, his “home life was normal” with his mom and dad both working their hardest to support their kids (277). Dick had the resources to change his poor lifestyle, but instead was too lazy to pursue any better way of life. What makes him even less deserving of sympathy is the fact that he tries to blame his actions on his accident messing him up. He claims that he has “had sickness. I think caused from the car wreck I had” when it was proven that his criminal behavior started before the incident (279). Perry, on the other hand, tried extremely hard throughout his life, but his poor existence kept bringing him down. He attempted to educate himself, but he could only learn so much without the guidance of others. Also, he was beaten and abandoned as a child, which completely scarred his emotional state. Since he could not better his circumstances, he came to have “unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy or content” (43). Since those people have what he can never attain, he becomes jealous of them. Perry was extremely jealous of all of the potential of the Clutter family, thus being his incentive to kill them. Although their crime is inexcusable, Perry deserves a bit of sympathy because there was no way out of his poor lifestyle.