The gripping story of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood is a beautifully written piece depicting the discovery of a family murder. This fast-paced, straightforward investigative documentary provides commentary on such violence and examines the details of the needless murders of four members of the Clutter family and the investigation that led to the capture, trial and execution of the killers. As this twisted novel unfolds, Capote establishes themes of childhood influences relevant to the killers' adulthood, opposing personalities, and nature versus nurture. Truman Capote provides the reader with a detailed account of the childhoods of Perry Smith and Dick Hickock. Smith's childhood was very problematic and marked by years of abuse. He saw his father abuse his mother, which led to the divorce. Because of these problems, he ran away from home, and was in and out of detention houses "many times" (Capete 277). He was also severely beaten and humiliated by a nun in one of those houses. These violent episodes forced his hostility towards other human beings to manifest. As Smith entered adulthood, he turned to theft and committed acts of battery. While in the Marines, he once threw a Japanese policeman off a bridge into the water. These events obviously took a toll on Smith and his adulthood provided him with the opportunity to exact revenge. The childhoods of the two killers were obviously unrelated, and their differences lead one to question the configuration of a killer's mind. Obviously it is not childhood that influences the mentality of the criminal mind, as their childhood was completely opposite. Smith's lack of companionship during his childhood probably led him to seek companionship in ...... middle of paper ...... somewhat empty. It would have been nice to see what was going on in their heads and how they reacted to the death of their family. However, the continuous description Capote provided of Holcomb's events and the events surrounding Dick and Perry ultimately made the novel more vivid. The way Capote set up the novel was brilliant; it was designed to keep the reader uncertain and alert at all times. I found In Cold Blood absolutely compelling; it was much more than journalism. The five years of hard work Capote put into his journalism skillfully brought the novel to life. The interview process also revealed a very important, but beautiful obstacle for the novel; Capote fell in love with Perry. He did a wonderful job never appearing in the novel. Capote believed that the key to good journalism was to make the author invisible, and he certainly succeeded.