Family In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Family plays a major psychological part in one’s life. The dynamics of the family have effects that are positive, negative, or both, on a person. The role of family in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is to shape and define each individual from childhood to the person that they are as an adult, creating different outcomes that are most profound in cases such as Barbara Johnson and Perry Smith.
Notably, Perry Smith’s unhappy childhood consists of familial instability and brokenness, resulting in his criminal activity as an adult. In his autobiography that he wrote on trial, Perry writes about the difficulties of his childhood, remembering his parents’ argument over his mother’s alcoholism and promiscuity which resulted in his father, “proceeding to beat [his] mother” (173). The volatile nature of his father and his mother’s drinking psychologically
At one point in their childhood, Perry and Barbara lives with an alcoholic mother who was “‘entertaining’ some sailors while [their] father was away” and shared and an absent and abusive father (173). Clearly, both siblings grew up in a family without morale. As parents, “Tex and Flo” fails to instill good conduct into their children since they didn’t have any themselves. When Perry reaches adulthood, Barbara didn’t love him anymore as “he wasn't her baby anymore but a wild thing, a thief, a robber” (115). Perry’s outcome is a product of a troubled beginning. He succumbs to the same fate as his other siblings, save for Barbara. When each she reaches adulthood, Barbara “goes on to live an ordinary life, married, and raising a family” (69). Barbara gains values elsewhere and builds a family of integrity herself. She is the only exception in the whole family. The differing lives of Perry and Barbara shed light on the importance of learning from the mistakes and mishaps of the