The Role of Fate: 'In Cold Blood' and the Question of Free Will Anthony Tran College

Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is a nonfiction novel which seeks to understand the reasons leading to the tragic murders of the Clutter family. Whilst Capote does not endeavour to downplay the atrocities committed by Perry Smith and Dick Hickock, he does suggest that fate is involved in the destinies of both the victims and the perpetrators. However, arguably more disturbing than fate is the influence of poverty and abuse on an individual’s character as well as the perversion of the American Dream which for some is unattainable. Opposed to simply a predestined fate, the novel also explores the disquieting facet of how an individual’s nature and free will can dictate their own future.

The depiction of fate and its involvement in the events leading to the grievous murders of the Clutters and the final days of Dick and Perry is undeniably an eerie element of In Cold Blood. For instance, Perry returns to Kansas hoping to reunite with his “real and only friend” Willie-Jay, the aftermath of which “was up to fate” for if “things didn’t work out with Willie-Jay”, then Perry might “consider Dick’s proposition”. Perry himself claimed that he had agreed to Dick’s plan “not because he wished to but because fate had arranged the matter”,...