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Perry In Flannery O Connor's In Cold Blood

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Many readers of the novel In Cold Blood tend to believe that Perry’s conflict is with his partner, Dick, because he constantly talks down to and manipulates Perry. These readers however are wrong because Perry’s main conflict stems from the fact that he faced multiple complex traumas as a child which has led him to develop a mental illness. Perry continues to struggle with multiple effects of complex traumas such as dissociation, behavioral responses which are easily triggered, and difficulty or in ability to develop relationships with authority figures. These effects have stunted Perry’s ability to mature as an adult and have caused him to think impulsively and irrational throughout the novel. Though having committed a heinous crime Perry, …show more content…

Perry says “ Dad snatched a biscuit out of my hand, and said I ate too much, what a greedy, selfish bastard I was, and why didn't I get out, he didn't want me there no more. He carried on like that till I couldn't stand it. My hands got hold of his throat. My hands-but I couldn't control them. They wanted to choke him to death” (page 136). In other words, once Perry got angry he could not control his actions, and acted impulsively by grabbing his fathers throat. According to The National Child Traumatic Stress Network’s article on the Impact of Complex Trauma “ A child who feels powerless or who grew up fearing an abusive authority figure may react defensively and aggressively in response to perceived blame or attack…” (). Once Perry’s father snatched the biscuit out of his hand he responded aggressively because he felt attacked by his fathers action, thus causing him to act irrationally and impulsively by choking his father. On pages 43 and 44 Willie-Jay says to Perry, “ You are strong, but there is a flaw in your strength, and unless you learnt o control it the flaw will prove stronger than your strength and defeat you. The flaw? Explosive emotional reaction out of all proportion to the occasion. Why? Why this unreasonable anger at the sight of others who are happy or content, this growing contempt for people and the desire to hurt them? All right, you think

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