Israel Perez

English 3-4
5/4/2016

In Cold Blood Essay

Queer/Feminist Lens
In the book In Cold Blood, an imaginative nonfiction piece by Truman Capote, Capote
examines the 1959 murder of the Clutter family. While Capote tries to give an unbiased
perspective about everyone involved with the murder he ends up writing more in depth about the
background of the two alleged murderers Richard Eugene Hickok (Dick) and Perry Edward
Smith. While there are many characters being written about in his book Perry is the most unique,
for looking at his role in the book through a feminist lenses he breaks some of the Male
portrayed norms while also fitting perfectly into them. Looking at Perry through a queer lenses
he also breaks what is socially considered the way he is supposed to act by raising the question
of is Perry Smith gay? Not only that but since we get a lot about Perrys past we get to see the
different roles that each person plays and their effects on Perry. Throughout the 1950s gender
roles and society norms were different than today, Looking at multiple characters in the book we
can identify what gender roles they play and what affects each gender role has on the characters
when played correctly
In the 1950s the most common role men played was being the provider of the family
which means they were the ones going to work and making money to provide for the whole
family. The most common role that women played was being the traditional housewife or
housekeeper. So the women were the ones taking care of either the kids or home or even both. At
first glance the Clutter family looks like it fits perfectly with the social gender and family norms
but as we read and dig deeper into them we find out that there are some differences/informalities.

For example in the beginning of the book we learn about Herb clutter and how he is the strict
father, hardworking provider of the family, and well known person of Holcomb but as we dig
deeper we find out that he takes over some of the roles of the mother. So since his wifes illness
and the departure of the elderly daughters, Mr. Clutter had of necessity learned to cook; either he
or Nancy, but principally Nancy, prepared the family meals. Mr. Clutter enjoyed the chore, and
was excellent at it no women in Kansas baked a better loaf of salt rising bread, and his coconut
cookies were the first item to go at charity cake sales- but he was not a hearty eater (Capote, 9)
Because of the absence of a feminine figure, such as a healthy wife and older daughter, Mr.
Clutter had to take on the role of cooking for his family. What could question Mr. Clutters
masculinity is that he enjoyed taking on this feminist chore, not only that but he was excellent in
doing it, where he was better than all the women in Kansas that made bread.
Nancy and Kenyon clutter also fit the gender norms of a 1950s family. For example
Nancy clutter is described in the book as the town darling because she follows the rules and does
everything perfect. she felt it was her duty to be available when young girls came to her wanting
help with their cooking, their sewing or their music lessons - or , as often happens , to be confide.
Where she found the time, still manage to practically run that big house and be a straight a
student.(Capote, 18) This quote show many different things one of them is that she is seen as
this perfect daughter that's a role model for other young women another thing is that in the
beginning of the quote it starts to list what she does and all the things listed are things that are
considered as feminine and the women's gender role. Kenyon is the best example since Kenyon
is the only son, he is the one that got taught by Mr. Clutter how to work on the farm and do
everything so in a way he is following in his dad's footsteps. Take Kenyon. Right now he kind
of leans towards being an engineer, or scientist, but you can't tell me my boys not a natural born

rancher.(Capote, 47) in this quote you can see the pressure and influence that his dad has on him
to become a rancher not only that but his desire to go to college like his dad. What's interesting
about this is that it already starts to create gender roles in the book and how each person is
supposed to act. It shows how women are the more social ones that depend on the male figure
while the men are supposed to be the hard working providers that tend to the needs of the
women.
Perry is an interesting character in this book because of how he acts throughout different
parts of the book. In the Beginning of the book Perry Smith gets introduced as an out of
proportion little man that has masculine and feminine features, much like how he will act
throughout the book Sitting, he had seemed a more than normal sized man, a powerful man,
with the shoulders, the arms, the thick, crouching torso of a weightlifter- But sections of him
were not in proportion to others. His tiny feet, encased in short black boots with steel buckles,
would have neatly fitted into a delicate ladies dancing slipper; when he stood up he was no taller
than a twelve year old child, and suddenly looked, stunted leg that seemed grotesquely
inadequate to the grown up bulk they supported.(Capote, 15). Right after this description of
Perry the next page starts to raise the question of his sexuality. Perry had been attracted to him,
for it made dick seem, compared to himself, so authentically tough, invulnerable totally
masculine (Capote, 16) In this quote it shows how Perry sees himself and dicks role in their
relationship, how Dick is the masculine one in control and later on in the book we find out that
Perry is the sensitive one. As we progress into the book we start to hear Dick and Perry call each
other names such as Baby, Sugar, and Honey, by calling each other these names it suggest
that they got more comfortable with each other and they are in a relationship.

What could have influenced Perry's homosexuality are his role models that we read about
from his past such as his mother or father. Perry's mother (Mrs. Smith) is portrayed a lot
differently than the normal house wife she is nothing at all like Mrs. clutter or Nancy clutter;
Mrs. Smith is the first female character in the book to not follow the common feminist role.
Throughout the book we learn that Perrys mom left Mr. Smith and all of her kids to go live a
wild life in the city My children all cried at the top of their voices. She only cussed them saying
they would run away to come to me later, she got mad and said she would turn the children
against me (Capote, 126), she later then took her children with her to san Francisco yet she still
wasn't the best mother because she mistreated her children due to her drinking problem my
mother was always drunk, never in a fit condition to properly provide and care for us. (Capote,
275). Mrs. Smith was a bad mother for many reasons one of the reasons is that she emotionally
scarred her children which clearly affected all of them in the future; Perry became a murderer,
one of the siblings fell out of a window due to drinking, the other killed himself with their
partner. The other reason was because she neglected them, I took my boy back to his mother
and left the city. Perry later told me, his mother told him to find a new home. (Capote, 126).
While his mother was bad to him, his father was the opposite Perry found comfort in him. Since
Perry had left to live with his dad Mr. Smith had to take on the role and responsibility of the
mother while also taking the roles of the father. To Perry, His father was his savior rescuing him
from the evil feminine role.
By looking at in cold blood through a feminist lenses we can see that there are a variety
of different characters that fit into the feminist stereotypes differently. We saw how the clutter
family fit almost perfectly into the social stereotypes as a family. While the murderer Perry smith
does not. Perry isn't the only character that does not fit into these norms but Perrys parents are

complete opposites of them the mother is the opposite of the 1950s expected stay at home mom
while his father is both masculine while also taking on feminine roles for the good of his son. In
the book we can clearly see that these out of normal roles have an effect on what roles other
people play. Gender roles in the 1950s/60s were clearly different than they were today yet this
book has characters that push forward the socially acceptable roles.