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In Cold Blood Analysis

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In Cold Blood Analysis
Mandeep Kaur
Analysis
3B
The film Capote is based on the novel In Cold Blood about the murder of the Clutter family. The novel does in the depth about the charters and the plot but the movie leaves out many important details to leave the viewer’s wondering why something happened. Capote focuses on the text and characterization In Cold Blood, as the film Capote challenges the characterization of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock.
Perry Smith was described in the novel with crucial details as in the film they skip the introductory details. Perry grew up under difficult circumstances as stated in the book “six of us riding in an old truck, sleeping in it, too, sometimes, and living off of mush and Hershey kisses and condensed milk.” (131) The film doesn’t’ tell Perry’s upbringing but instead skips to after the murder and his struggle to be free. Being abandoned by his family he went through many traumatic experiences and suffered severe abuse, "there was this one nurse... she'd fill a tub with ice-cold water, put me in it, and hold me under till I was blue. Nearly drowned.” (128) Smith later develops a lifelong aversion to which is written in the novel but in the film is not acted out which leaves the audience to wonder why he acts the way he does. The novel portrays Perry’s reoccurring dream about a large bird that saves him from bullies and abusers, “felt all breath and light leaving me,' he said, in a subsequent description of his sensations. “The walls of the cell fell away, the sky came down, and I saw the big yellow bird.”(257). While in jail the film shows Perry having a hard time sleeping but ne He is described as a small, muscular man whose body is unique and unproportional “…who could never find trousers to fit his truncated lower half, who wore blue jeans rolled up at the bottom and a leather windbreaker.” (32). Perry never passed the third grade but as an adult he has an incredible thirst for knowledge, vocabulary, and literature. His desire to be

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