The Role Of The American Dream In In Cold Blood (Essay Example)

Throughout “In Cold Blood” Truman Capote develops the argument that the American dream is toxic through his venture into the minds of the repeated criminals that slaughtered the Clutters. Through the description of the murders, the Clutters lives, and the actions of murderers, Capote forces the reader to reevaluate how they view success. He examines morality, how it interacts with the idea of the American dream, and how the promise of success through hard work led to the Clutter killings.

The murder of the Clutters started as a robbery. After being led to believe that the Clutters had a safe filled with money in their house, Dick Hickock and Perry Smith decided to rob them. Once Perry and Dick realized they had gotten false information and there was little to no money in the house, they killed Herb and Bonnie Clutter as well as their teenage children Kenyon and Nancy. In Holcomb, “The inhabitants of the village… were satisfied… quite content to exist inside ordinary life” as described by Capote (5). Citizens of Holcomb specifically thought of the Clutters as having a lot of money and living comfortably and seen as the perfect family. Capote wrote the Clutters as a representation of the American dream.

Many define the American dream as the promise of prosperity and success as long as you work hard. Subsequently, people do anything they can to reach this imaginary threshold in hopes of finding a stable life. Their need for stability leads Perry and Dick to rob the Clutters in the first place. Perry says the murders weren’t because of anything the Clutters did because they never hurt him like other people had all his life (290). Though Dick and Perry did not have any direct resentment against the Clutters, the rage of this seemingly perfect family not being able to give them what they wanted caused their killings. 

Dick and Perry both had troubling upbringings that led to them becoming criminals. To begin with, Dick has a horrible relationship with his parents, even considering killing himself  “to punish his father and mother and other enemies” (202). From childhood, Dick did not have a stable nor an idealistic life which led him to his life of crime and to the Clutters. Similarly, Perry grew up with an alcoholic mother and even his sister said “they shared a doom against which virtue was no defense” because of their upbringing (185). She thought that they grew up in such a position that their fate is to become criminals lacking morality. Consequently, both characters ultimately only look out for themselves for protection. They spent their lives chasing perfection that they missed growing up and gave up all traces of goodness to get what they wanted.

Perry describes how he crawled on the floor to get a silver dollar after learning the Clutters had little cash on hand emphasizing “One dollar” to point out the silliness of it (240). He was so desperate for a single dollar that he was willing to crawl for it. Capote points out that someone already living comfortably would not understand this feeling of desperation that would lead you to this point saying “it is easy to ignore the rain if you have a raincoat” to describe this phenomenon (144). Capote recognizes that a life of crime is often thrust upon people who have nothing. Likewise, even the detectives who claimed to wish to see them hung said they had “a measure of sympathy” for Hickock and Smith as they saw how their upbringings pushed them to this point (246). Though neither Capote nor the detectives attempt to call Hickock and Smith good people, justified people, nor people deserving of mercy, both saw that no one gave Dick and Perry the idealistic life that Capote described the Clutters as having for much of the book, which led to their lack of morality and their choices.

Despite being introduced as a seemingly perfect family, a close reader can notice that this is less than the truth. From Herb ignoring Kenyon’s interests, to Bonnie’s depression, and more, Capote details numerous flaws within the Clutter family. Though they have the stability that Dick and Perry lack, every family has problems. Even with relative success or prosperity, unhappiness can still haunt someone. The American dream convinces people that if they work hard they can have all they want and find happiness, but nothing is that simple. The killings of the Clutters show how the American dream leads to destruction.

Capote uses the lives and deaths of the Clutters, Dick Hickock, and Perry Smith to demonstrate how the perfect life many people want is neither perfect nor possible. He exhibits that this ideal that claims to inspire people to work harder, makes people lose their morals to find happiness that may not even be on the other side. The anger that Hickock and Smith feel that leads to them killing the Clutters is anger and resentment towards their lives and the society that led them to the Clutter house on that night. “In Cold Blood” is not only the story of the Clutter murders, but it is a death tale of the so-called American dream.