Mental Illness In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

Pulitzer Prize winner and famous playwright, Truman Capote, in his True Crime Thriller, In Cold Blood, leads his audience through a story about the gruesome small Kansas town Clutter family murders. Capote’s purpose is to show us the perspective and thoughts of the persons involved in the crime. Capote adopts a grim and dark tone to convey to readers how mental illness is a bigger problem and how it can affect more than just one individual.
Throughout the novel, we see the events after and during the murders through the perspective of all parties involved and surrounding this event. We get to see the Clutters life before it got turned upside down, the detectives investigating the case, and the one that stands out beyond all else, Richard Eugene
How is this relevant? Back in this time, things were just different. The cars, the houses, the price of a steak dinner, but the one thing that was different back then was the people. No iPhones or Xboxes. The way they receive help was very different as well when compared to today. Capote periodically shows us how the effects of mental illness can affect the actions of men and influence their thoughts and behaviors. Such as the man we call Perry. A man who clearly suffered from schizophrenia and just pure psychopathy. Schizophrenia can affect the way one thinks and break them down emotionally. It can even lead to delusions and paranoia. The bigger part to this is that schizophrenia can result from a bad childhood which Perry did have. The other part of his mental illness is psychopathy. No good control over your own behaviors, antisocial, and less remorse than normal. The whole point of this little tangent here was to give you a sense of how mental illness is a bigger problem than it appears and how Capote builds off that. Why else would he insert quotes such as “Deal me out, baby,’ Dick said. ‘I’m a normal.’ And Dick meant what he said. He thought of himself as balanced, as sane as anyone—maybe a bit smarter than