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Theme Of Sympathy For In Cold Blood

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Throughout the story of the Clutter murder case In Cold Blood, Truman Capote successfully creates sympathy towards two specific characters, those being Dick Hickock and Nancy Clutter, by telling the backstory of each character, as well as many other aspects of their lives.
The first and most important character that Capote creates sympathy for is Dick Hickock, a man who has experienced a concussion from a car crash. This claim is backed up by the quote on page 585 in the pdf book which states, “He had a serious head injury with concussion and several hours of unconsciousness in 1950–this was verified… He does not seem to be capable of learning from experience… followed by patently irresponsible actions.” (Capote 585). This quote shows the true backstory of Dick which plays into a part of why he is who he is. He was never like this before, as the story claims on the online page 582, “He just didn’t act like the same boy.” (Capote 582). The change in Hickock’s life was sparked by the car accident in 1950 and changed him as a person altogether. …show more content…

She is the daughter of the Clutter family, and she dies without reason just like the rest of the family. The Clutter family had nothing to do with the murders, which makes it more confusing on why Perry wanted to kill them. One of the officers even remarks, “Well, it was pretty bad. That wonderful girl—but you would never have known her. She’d been shot in the back of the head with a shotgun held maybe two inches away.” (Capote 107 [online]). The description of the gruesome way in which Nancy is killed shows and creates sympathy towards her and hatred towards her killers. Capote constantly describes the innocence of her as well throughout the

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