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Nature Vs. Nurture Conflict In Truman Copote's In Cold Blood

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How do we become who we are today? Are we born this way, or are we slowly transformed by the world around us? This controversy is most often recognized as the nature verses nurture conflict. Some people believe that it is strictly genes that affects our ways of life, others believe that it is the environment that affects us. Though genetics makes us who we are genetically, the environment in which we are raised directly shapes our life. According to John Watson, one of the strongest psychologists who propose environmental side, once said that he could train baby to become any type of specialist Watson wanted. He stated that he could train him to be such regardless of the child's potentialities, talents and race. Infants are shaped by every …show more content…

Copote uses this quote to descried Perry. "Nonetheless, he found it possible to look at the man beside him without anger-with, rather a measure of sympathy-for Perry Smith's life had been no bed of roses but pitiful, an ugly and lonely progress toward one mirage and then another." (246) Perry’s mental condition is a result of a traumatic childhood. It was understandable to even a KBI agent that Perry’s background is what drove him to commit murder. Therefore, it is apparent that Perry’s lack of a nurturing family and childhood caused him to commit crimes, rather than his own human …show more content…

However, the development of mental illnesses is not entirely genetic” (GoodTherapy.org). With metal illnesses, just because you have the genes does not mean you will get the illness. It has to be sparked by a real life event. That’s why based of a twin study, one twin can have bipolar and the other may not because one twin did not have the same sparking experience the other one did. The environment in which we grow up can greatly affect our metal state along with our

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