The Clutter Family and How They Represent The American Dream

Capote uses the Clutter family to represent the rising middle class in 1950s America by describing their way of life and what they have. Capote uses extensive characterization to develop the Clutter family and to demonstrate how they represent American Dream. The American Dream is the belief that anyone can improve their social standing through hard work. This whole story is about the obsession with achieving the American Dream.

The Clutter family and the town of Holcomb represent the successful side of the American Dream and the murderers represent the failure to achieve it.

The exploration of American Dream is integral to this story. In Cold Blood is an appropriate exploration of the American Dream because it explores the material, psychological, and environmental circumstances that go into trying to achieve the American Dream.

The Clutter family has the ideal life. They own a farm, have a family, have a car, and were Methodist. It is a very loving household. More specifically, Herb Clutter achieved the American Dream. Herb Clutter was “the community’s most widely known citizen, prominent both there and in Garden City, the close dash by county seat…’. Herb Clutter started from nothing and through hard- work and determination he became prosperous. It was a miracle that he got into college at all. The American Dream was to own a house, have a car, and have enough money to live comfortably. Nancy is “the darling of the town” and all of the girls her age wanted to be her.

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She is the youngest daughter. She is an extremely busy person, but is very disciplined. She is a brave and charming girl. Nancy is very helpful as well. She is on her way to achieve the American Dream. The two older sisters already are living the American Dream.

Through hard- work, they have ideal lives with loved ones. They both went to college and got married. As you can see, the Clutter family has all of that. All of the Clutters are well- respected in their community. To everybody, the Clutter family seems like the picture perfect family, but just like everyone else, they have their own problems, which makes the Clutter family not completely achieve the American Dream. Holcomb was an extremely innocent town, until the murders. Holcomb is the American Dream. It is a place where people go to each other for help and a feeling of safety among each other. It is a very prosperous town. “The townspeople, theretofore sufficiently unfearful of each other to seldon trouble to lock their doors” (5). It is a very safe and welcoming neighborhood, which is the definition of the American Dream for a town.

Furthermore, Perry Smith and Dick Hickock symbolize the failure to achieve the American Dream. They have an incapability to obtain the American dream. Perry was crippled by a motorcycle accident and haunted by a childhood of poverty and abuse. He was never able to find bliss in the middle class existence, despite being intelligent and hardworking. On the other hand, Dick is in the slightly stable lower middle class. He is really concerned by the normal means which he might achieve the American dream. Dick’s fear of being normal makes him turn to a life of crime with Perry. These characters are obviously in contrast to the American Dream and the Clutters hide behind the facade of normalcy for as long as they can. In any of the characters, there was not complete fulfillment of the American dream, but there was never a failure at achieving the American dream either.

Capote alternates between characterizing the Clutters and characterizing the murderers because it builds suspense and makes the story more objective. As the views switch, the readers learns information that other characters do not know. The anticipation is menacing. The reader is just waiting for everyone to clash. Capote overall characterizes the Clutter family and the murderers as completely opposites. Alternating chapters between Clutters and murderers creates a sharp contrast between nature vs nurture.The alternating demonstrates both sides of the American Dream and how hard it is to actually fully achieve it.

In Cold Blood presents a conflicted image of the notion of the American Dream. The text portrays a prosperous, middle- class community, that was forced to question its values and its sense of safety and security when the Clutter family was murdered. This texts warns Americans not to take the Dream for granted and encourage readers to recognize that the American Dream is available only to a small group of individuals while excluding a vast majority of people from its promises.

Capote uses point of view to allow readers to see the story though many different perspectives. He describes the same murder and the result through the eyes of the victims, the murderers, the investigators, and the Holcomb citizens. He uses positive diction for the Clutters and cataloguing of their attributes. Also, Capote uses lengthy sentences to describe the monotonous lifestyle of the Clutters. He told Dick´s and Perry´s story directly after describing positive characteristics of Clutters, making the Clutters look even more respectable.

Capote characterizes Dick and Perry with vivid descriptions, descriptions about their physical appearance, differentiates them from each other, and telling anecdotes. Dick is portrayed as the dominant one out of the pair and Perry is considered the submissive between the two. Capote demonstrates Dick’s personality with simple sentences, little punctuation, stoic diction, simple syntax, and harsh hyperboles. “One deceived salesman said, ‘He [Hickock] did the work. A very smooth talker, very convincing’” (217). This makes the audience perceive him as evil, dominant, and uneducated. On the other hand, Capote deeply describes Perry’s past revealing an horrific childhood. To show Perry’s personality, Capote uses negative and expressive descriptive diction, contradictions, and discrete anecdotes. This allows the reader to feel sympathetic for him because the text shows that he is actually a nice man who wants to be better, but is still troubled and bad.

The structure of In Cold Blood influences the reader to view humans as inherently evil through Capote’s stylistic crafting of the text. There is a portrayal of violence and fear in American culture throughout the whole book. Before reading, the audience already knows the outcome. The readers know that the Clutters are going to die and the killers will be caught and executed in the book. Shortly after the murders, everyone began to distrust their neighbors. In this story, there are many instances of crime and violence. For example, “They [soldiers] murder, and get medals for doing it. The good people of Kansas want to murder me – and some hangman will be glad to get the work” (291). A large purpose of this book is to show how amoral the death penalty is which occurs in this book. All in all, there is a lot of death and mistrust. The worst in people will always come out. These killings and distrust present that humans are more attracted to bad things. People are naturally selfish.

When the murders are first discovered in the section “Persons Unknown”, Perry and Dick are elevated to an inhuman, almost mythic stature. The essence of a pure and motiveless evil that has come to destroy the peaceful lifestyle of the Holcomb residents. Capote, however, replaces this simplistic view with a more sensitive interpretation. Although he does not attempt to excuse their actions, Capote shows how ordinary feelings of frustration and despair accidentally erupt into such an extraordinary crime. Normal human responses become amplified and find a destructive outlet.

Life is a constant battle of being good or bad. Every person has that battle brewing inside of them. Capote presents a very pessimistic view on humans. People are cruel, distrusting, and judgemental. This book shows that there is a lot of violence and killing in the world. People kill people. We see other people as blameworthy, morally responsible, and cruel for not giving us what we deserve while taking more than they deserve. Consequently, we treat them horribly because we see them as moral human beings. Jealous and envy are large parts in humans. We are all sensitive to social hierarchies and desire for approval and esteem. As a result, we often fold to the social pressures of our environment.

In conclusion, In Cold Blood by Truman Capote is a perfect choice to explore the truth about the American Dream and the true nature of humans. This book demonstrates that only a few types of people can actually obtain the American Dream, but everyone wants it. The audience can see the struggle to achieve this goal through the lives of Perry and Dick and the upside of attaining the American Dream through the Clutter family and Holcomb. Also, this story shows how delicate the American Dream is. It can be taken away in an instant. One little thing can cause someone to lose it all. Capote’s literary techniques allows the reader to see that humans are inherently evil through everyone and everything in the story. In Cold Blood is a tremendous story to really get the audience thinking.