The mesmerizing story of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is a captivating piece written in tale of a family murder. The straightforward analytical story told by Truman Capote examines the violent motives of the murderous characters, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. In this writing, Capote intended to both justify and sympathize the event. Although he wanted to show sympathy, Capote tends to show his sympathy to the murderers instead of the victims, one particularly more than the other, that of Perry Smith. Throughout the novel, Capote creates sympathy for the murderers but at the same time he lets the readers in on all the horrible details of the crime. Writing a nonfiction sympathetic novel is not an easy thing to do; hence, it took him six years to complete this masterpiece. That being said, In Cold Blood remained true to its intent. Although the story remained true to its intent, one could argue whether or not Truman Capote should have shown so much sympathy for Perry Smith by becoming intertwined with his present and past lifestyle.
Capote's focus of In Cold Blood was not that so much of the victims, the Clutter family, nor did it focus much on the investigative aspect of the story. But it did more so emphasize the murderer, Perry Smith. As we continue to read In Cold Blood, we continue to see the unusual attachment between Capote and Perry Smith. This strange connection manages to capture Smith as this average human-being instead of a sick sadistic killer who murders innocent people. .
As Truman Capote intertwines mostly with Smith, Capote began digging deeper in Smith's past to see where exactly he had come from. As a child, Smith had been an orphan. His biological mother, before orphanage, was a single, divorced, alcoholic who ultimately sent her Smith to a Catholic orphanage where the nuns were constantly down his throat and hitting him. Smith had three siblings, two who had committed suicide and one who was still living at the time of the Clutter family murder.
