In Cold Blood-If you want to know a person, then go to see his childhood.

Compared with Is Paris Burning, In Cold Blood, a non-fiction novel published in 1966, seems to be better to read. It took the author two mornings to finish reading it, and when the pages were closed, my heart was sad for a long time.

this is a "non-fiction novel" which records the whole story of the murder of a family of four in Holcomb village, Kansas in the 195s. As a writer invited by The New York Times, Capote made a follow-up report and interview. Journalism has given this kind of report a special term called "feature".

The story is divided into four chapters, from the quietness before the incident to the uproar after the incident, where villagers who used to keep their houses open at night were suspicious of each other, and the detectives spared no effort to investigate the case (even lost their normal lives), until the murderers Perry and Dick went into exile in Mexico and returned to Kansas. Finally, the case turned around under unexpected clues, and the detectives finally caught the murderer.

In order to keep suspense, the author did not explain the murderer's crime process in chronological order; But from the detective's point of view, lead readers to uncover the truth step by step. Especially in the process of the murderer's escape, after describing and analyzing the murderer's family, growth process and social experience, the murderer's behavior in the victim's home and the specific murder process seem to be more "reasonable".

When Capote portrays Dick and Perry, the two protagonists in the novel, they have completely different emotional colors. Dick, who was raised by a pair of kind and simple parents, was unable to enter the university to continue to develop his sports expertise because of his family's financial constraints, which made him feel bad about his father. Get married and have children, cheat and divorce, commit crimes and go to jail. Unlike Perry's status as an "abandoned child", Dick grew up smoothly and went astray because he could not control his desire to spend money and turned to the road of breaking the law without skills.

Perry feels that he and Dick have become an inseparable whole, but on the other hand, he is obsessed with separating from Dick: "At first, I thought his boasting was brave and fearless, but I didn't know that he only paid lip service, but in fact he was a disgusting coward." Capote also mentioned Dick's "unspeakable secret" in the article: pedophilia. Although the author portrays Dick as blond, tall, strong and humorous; But in fact, Dick is just a social scum who is "out of gold and jade, but out of it".

On the contrary, Capote poured more sympathy into the portrayal of Perry. Perry grew up unhappy, tortured by alcoholic mother for many years, and abused by priests and nuns in church shelters (the repeated abuse of nuns in this article explains why Perry was extremely disapproving or even indifferent when his sister/comrade-in-arms/adjutant wife persuaded him to believe in God).

Barbara, Perry's sister, wrote in the letter that she was afraid of Perry and envied him because he was loved by his father since childhood. However, his father's love did not make Perry feel happy. Because of his father's neglect, Perry, who was eager to learn, was forced to drop out of school to be an Eskimo with his father in the snow and ice (as his comrades called him). He was eager to learn. The details mentioned in the article were "Perry threw away a lot of things, but took a notebook with him."

Perry even fantasizes that he is "Perry? O palsson ",performing" One Man's Symphony "on the stage-often appearing in dreams at this time, in a nightclub in Las Vegas, where Perry walked smartly to the spotlight stage in a white hat and evening dress, performing harmonica, guitar and banjo in turn, and singing" You are my sunshine ".

"The wall of the cell disappeared, and the sky appeared. I saw a big yellow bird falling from the sky." In his life, from poor and miserable childhood to bohemian youth, and now to prison, the huge yellow parrot always flies in Perry's dream. It is Perry's revenge angel, killing the enemy for him, or just like at this moment, when his life is threatened, "it grabbed me, and I am probably as light as a feather"

So many misfortunes and fate tricks seem to provide a reasonable explanation for Perry's cruel behavior, and also make readers feel more sympathetic to Perry. Capote even described Perry's protection for women. When Dick tried to rape the 15-year-old daughter among the victims, Perry strongly objected: "Unless you kill me first." Fearing that Dick's fragile mother couldn't stand the blow of her son's murder, Perry overturned her testimony and admitted to the court that she "killed everyone", but in fact, two women among the victims were killed by Dick.

"Perry's calf is hanging there like a human being." "Perry chews amoxicillin everywhere in the movie."

Cruel and compassionate, with a bumpy life, such contradictory feelings exist in the same person. Perry is full of the temperament of a stray animal, a wounded beast who is still wandering around.

In the journal American Psychiatry, Perry was described as "investigating the past history of the dead, we can find that children have suffered from domestic violence from their parents in their childhood, and letting them suffer this kind of stimulation before they are sensible will make them form a self-destructive character in their early years, resulting in loss of self-control and impulsive feelings in the future." "These people did not produce anger or rage in the process of violence. Their relationship with others was very cold, giving people the impression of being lonely and unsociable. These people are the most prone to murder. They are not overloaded with offensive energy, or their self-control system is unstable, so that they will vent it from time to time in the most naked and primitive way. Especially when the factors of emotional instability already exist, potential victims will be identified as key figures in some traumatic experience in the past, and the motive for murder is likely to inspire them. "

I didn't kill them because of what the Clutter family did. They never hurt me. Unlike the others. I've been bullied by others all my life, perhaps just because the Carats are destined to pay this debt for others. Perry said: "I don't regret it later? If that's what you mean, I don't regret it. I have no feelings about it. I wish I regretted it, but actually I didn't. Less than half an hour after it happened, Dick began to tell jokes, which made me laugh wildly. Maybe we're not people at all. My humanity is only enough to pity myself. "

Capote is not so much writing with a "heavy social conscience" as he is ambitious and even "cold-blooded" to use this cruel murder case to concoct his own classic works handed down from generation to generation.

in the film autobiography in cold blood, Capote came to the town where the tragedy happened and said to the detective in charge of the investigation, "I don't care who did this, I only care about the impact this has on the lives of the people in the town."

However, the "why" the perpetrator did this is the key point he tried to emphasize. He looked through the information of criminals, visited their families and former friends, and got a lot of first-hand information; Because of this, he has gone too far: his experience with Perry is too similar. Abandoned children, gloomy childhood and social heterogeneity made him unable to separate himself from Perry's life. The two of them are like brothers, and Perry's cold blood flows quietly in his veins. Perry is like an old friend of his, a ghost from his past, always reminding him of his identity and source, reminding him of the terrible years and the angry monster sleeping in his heart.

Harper who went to visit this case with Capote? Lee once asked him, "Hey, are you in love with Perry?" Capote replied, "We are like children growing up in the same room, except that I came out the front door and he went out the back door."

Capote hasn't published any novels since the great In Cold Blood came out. Perhaps his emotional devotion to In Cold Blood made him unable to devote himself wholeheartedly to other works, perhaps Perry was branded with indelible feelings and memories, or perhaps his choice of Perry's fate made him unbearable to the controversy of the world.

In a word, Capote's life in his later years did not have the aura that a best-selling author should have, but ended in indulgence and alcoholism.

Maybe I didn't let go of my cruelty until I died.

There is a kind of person who is extremely indifferent to people's attention, but extremely arouses people's attention. They like to face the camera in this posture and squint at 45 degrees!