In Cold Blood

One of the main ideas of this book, commonly associated with America and the way we live, is that there are a wide range of people living in this country. America has been well known as the "melting pot" of the world. We have many ethnicities and races, and countless cultural differences. Within our melting pot people have different lifestyles and ambitions in life. Some work hard for what they get, and others try to find a quick way of getting what they want.

In the book, "In Cold Blood", Truman Capote elaborates on those main concepts of the American way of living. He shows how two different types of people, collide, ending in tragedy and death. In the book, the Clutter family is the typical stereotype of 1950's family. Herb Clutter, had established himself as a farmer, was known for his fairness, loyalty, and well respected in his community. His family was involved in the community and they were regular churchgoers. There were very few who didn't like the Clutter family.

On the other end of the concept, the murderers in the book were not so liked by their community or themselves. They came from families who were not held together like the Clutter family. Perry Smith, one of the murderers, had lost two siblings who committed suicide, and also lost a parent because of alcoholism. Smith had also been in a motorcycle accident, leaving his legs disfigured and leaving him with an addiction to aspirin.

The other murderer, Dick Hickock, had also been in a car wreck, leaving his face slightly disfigured; Hickock came from a poor family and had made it through life passing bad checks to get by. The two men learned about the Clutter family from a jail mate, Floyd Wells. Wells had told Hickock about how Herb Clutter spent over $10,000 a week to keep up his farm. Hickock figured that Herb Clutter must have had a safe that was loaded with cash. After the two got out of jail, and went with the brilliant idea of robbing the Clutters and taking the money to live in Mexico.

Many movies carve this idea into American ways of living. Several movies have the same situation where some kind of robbery is made and an escape across the border to the safe haven (Mexico). In my opinion this stereotype of American thinking is not at all true. There are not many highly rewarding robberies in the U.S. that are made successful, and VERY few that make it across the border to be safe.