Nature Vs. Nurture In Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

What makes a murderer? Is it the nature they are born with or the nurture they receive growing up? This is a question asked when reading In Cold Blood, a true crime novel about the murder of the Clutter family written by Truman Capote. In Cold Blood was published in late September of 1965. This book closely follows the finding and capturing of the criminals, the detectives on their journey to catch the killers and the background into the killers lives. A person’s personality is not solely decided by their nature or the nurture they receive. This is demonstrated in In Cold Blood because Dick’s nature was so deeply driven that it could not be changed by nurture and Perry’s nurture did not mold his nature correctly , because of these things Dick and Perry became infamous killers.
Perry Smith was part of the duo that killed the Clutter family. Perry became the person he is because of the improper nurture that was given to him when he was growing up. Perry did not have the most pleasant, safe or stable childhood. While reading In Cold Blood it is revealed that “Until Perry was five, the team of “Tex & Flo” continued to work the rodeo circuit” (Capote 131) and Perry later remarks that the way he and his family lived on the rodeo circuit “wasn’t “any gallon of ice cream”(Capote 131). When things became tough him
This can be seen in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood because it is the contrast between Dick and Perry’s different development that ultimately leads them to the same circumstances. Sometimes people are bad, sometimes good but it is neither nature nor nurture that solely decides who a person becomes. Rather an ensemble of the two and this is what makes a person. But the true question to ask is what has the greater impact: a person’s nature or the nurture they