Capote Perry Character Analysis

Although Capote exhibits Perry’s impulsive and heinous actions are due to his internal struggle, his ultimate goal is to illustrate Perry as a ruthless, manipulative murderer; therefore, he asserts that even the most monstrous of people can captivate compassion from others because of the diverse layers of their personality.
To begin, Capote uses a paradox to highlight Perry’s internal struggle that lead him to doing such atrocities. Throughout the novel, Capote reveals to readers that Perry had a hard life growing up and most everyone in his family committed suicide, besides his only surviving sibling, Barbara. While Capote is talking about Perry’s family, he says, “They shared a doom against which virtue was no defense" (Capote 185). Capote reveals that it is inevitable that Perry could not avoid his future of mass destruction. Perry’s “virtue”

Perry and Dick get picked up by a man named Mr. Bell; who they have the intentions of killing, so they can steal his car. They end up not killing him because the man picks up another hitchhiker. While Capote talked with Perry, he told Capote, he regretted one thing about Mr. Bell: “Perry, as he later recalled, thought, Five kids–well, too bad” (Capote 173). Capote exposes Perry’s ruthlessness of a killer and how he does not care that the man has five children. Perry despises those who have what he has always wanted: family. He shows his cruelty, through the wish of killing Mr. Bell when he had the chance. The structure of the sentence, creates a dramatic effect on what Perry thinks about bad events happening to people: it is inescapable. In the novel, Perry is looked at as somewhat angelic like, but when he is stripped down Perry has a different persona. He wants others to sympathize for him, when really he is a manipulative monster. Murderers are not only merciless and devious, but rather have several personalities from