In COld Blood

Truman Capote explores the idea of victimization in his renowned American novel In Cold Blood. The Clutters are the most apparent victims, in which they all were brutally murdered in their own home. Without Capote’s depiction of the events that let up to that heinous crime, they would be known as the only casualties. In writing this novel, Capote portrays the two murders, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, as victims as well; not of a homicide, but of life’s circumstances. Dick was born mentally handicapped and Perry was physically abused as a child. These childhood conditions are allegedly what led the two men to commit the murder of four innocent people. The Clutter family consisted of Herbert, his wife, and his two children. One night, they were bound, gagged, and shot by two ex-convicts who left with forty dollars and a pair of binoculars. The Clutters had no enemies, and as the resident of Holcomb would later testify; there was no one who didn't like the Clutters. This innocent middle-class family did nothing to deserve their fate and therefore they are classified as victims of a horrible tragedy.
Smith's childhood was very problematic and scarred by years of abuse. He witnessed beatings of his mother by his father; and as a result of the domestic violence, his parents divorced. Due to these problems he ran away from home, and he was "in and out of detention homes many times" (277). He was severely beaten and humiliated by a cottage mistress because of a micturition malfunction. These violent episodes compelled his bitterness toward other humans. When Smith entered adulthood, he committed acts of thievery and battery. While in the merchant marines, he once threw a Japanese policeman off a bridge and into the water. All these events had an impact on Smith, and his adulthood provided him with the opportunity to avenge the experiences that enraged him.
Hickock's childhood was marked by no horror stories. His years of childhood showed no signs of abuse or neglect,