In_Cold_Blood_Morals

Morals are a reoccurring theme in In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. Capote portrays morals in different ways through out the book. Some people in the book have better morals than others. Both Dick Hickock, one of the murderers, and Perry Smith, the other murderer, are better morally than each other in different ways. According to Capote, Dick has stronger morals but Perry has better morals, even though Capote might be a little bias. The way Perry is portrayed in the book is that he has somewhat better morals but is misguided and doesn’t know right from wrong. This could be because he had a bad childhood. He never had a functioning family to tell him what was right and what was wrong. Perry was also misguided because he looked up to Dick. "But also--I'll be honest--I had faith in Dick…(Answer, 234).” Perry had weak morals, which is how Dick was able to control him. One part were Perry’s morals come out is when he’s apologizing before he is hanged. “It would be meaningless to apologize for what I did. Even inappropriate. But I do. I apologize (The Corner, 340).” Dick on the other hand has constant and strong morals throughout the whole book. People might not agree with his morals, but he believed in them much stronger than Perry believed in his own. Dick was also a lot stronger than most people thought. “I never would have believed he had guts. To take it like he did. I had him tagged as a coward (Roy Church, The Corner, 339).” Many assumed he was like Perry. Although Dick had many bad morals he still had a few good ones. “Did you hear about Hickock’s eyes' He left them to an eye doctor. Soon as they cut him down, this doctor’s gonna yank out his eyes and stick them in somebody else’s head (The Corner, 338).” These were the ways Capote portrays Dick and Perry in the book, but he was bias to Perry. Capote got close to both murderers but he really felt a connection to Perry. Some people think Capote made up Perry’s apology at then end. The apology is inconsistent with the characterization of Perry that we see up to this point (recall the episode with Don Cullivan, in which Perry claims to have no remorse for the killings). The apology, rather, seems to be a last-ditch effort to make Perry into a sympathetic character, which partly reflects the author’s personal feelings about him. In conclusion, Both Dick and Perry are better morally than each other in different ways. Dick is morally strong and Perry has better morals, they’re just misguided and not well developed. This is according to Capote’s version of the story. Whether or not their morals were the same in real life is to be debated.