88 pages • 2 hours read
Truman CapoteIn Cold Blood
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1965A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Quiz
Reading Check, Multiple Choice & Short Answer Quizzes
Reading Check questions are designed for in-class review on key plot points or for quick verbal or written assessments. Multiple Choice and Short Answer Quizzes create ideal summative assessments, and collectively function to convey a sense of the work’s tone and themes.
Part 1
Reading Check
1. What is the name of the Clutters’ farm?
2. What does Perry hope to find in Mexico?
3. How did Dick acquire his facial scars?
4. Which member of the Clutter family has depression?
5. What was Perry’s real motivation for returning to Kansas in violation of his parole?
6. When and how are the Clutters’ murders discovered?
Multiple Choice
1. The Clutters’ orchard most strongly symbolizes which of the following?
A) evil
B) America
C) paradise
D) death
2. Which of the following characters most embodies midcentury American norms and ideals?
A) Nancy Clutter
B) Bonnie Clutter
C) Perry Smith
D) Dick Hickock
3. How does Capote use physical description to characterize Perry?
A) Perry’s physical appearance contrasts ironically with his personality.
B) Perry’s physical appearance reflects the contradictions of his personality.
C) Perry’s physical appearance reveals the core truth of his personality.
D) Perry’s physical appearance implies his personality is unknowable.
4. Broadly speaking, how does Dick seem to view Perry?
A) with contempt
B) with affection
C) with suspicion
D) with respect
5. Capote likely juxtaposes the Clutter and Perry/Dick storylines for all but which of the following reasons?
A) to contrast the all-American lives of the Clutters with Perry and Dick’s more marginalized existence
B) to suggest that the world the Clutters inhabit and the world Perry and Dick do are interrelated
C) to add an element of dramatic irony that heightens the story’s tension and pathos
D) to establish a moral equivalency between the storylines that hints at the narrator’s unreliability
6. Which of the following quotes best captures mainstream opinion in Holcomb regarding the murders?
A) “Varmints looking for a chance to slam the door in your face. It’s the same the whole world over” (79).
B) “[A]nd if something like this could happen to them, then who’s safe, I ask you” (81)?
C) "You had to believe it, because it was really true” (76).
D) “When your time comes, it comes. And tears won’t save you” (79).
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What event(s) seemed to spark Bonnie Clutter’s depression and why?
2. What sorts of activities is Herb Clutter involved in outside work?
3. Why does Perry want to buy black stockings, and what is the significance of his disagreement with Dick on this issue?
4. Why did Perry form such an attachment to Willie-Jay?
5. What kind of background does Dick seem to come from?
Part 2
Reading Check
1. Whom do the police initially focus on as a suspect?
2. Who is Floyd Wells?
3. How do Perry and Dick raise the money to go to Mexico?
4. What business did Perry attempt to run with his father?
5. What is Detective Dewey’s theory of the Clutter case?
6. Why do Perry and Dick return to the United States?
Multiple Choice
1. In what sense does Dewey’s role in the novel resemble that of its narrator?
A. Both serve as moral arbiters of good, evil, guilt, and innocence.
B. Both represent and defend the masculine ideal of 1950s America.
C. Both seek to understand the psychology of the Clutters’ killers.
D. Both approach the Clutter case objectively and dispassionately.
2. Why is Dewey skeptical of the two-murderer theory of the Clutters’ deaths?
A. He thinks it’s unlikely two people could be morally capable of committing the crimes.
B. He thinks anyone calculating enough to commit the crimes would forgo accomplices.
C. He thinks the killer staged the crime scene to suggest the presence of an accomplice.
D. He thinks the motive was robbery and that the killer wouldn’t want to split the money.
3. Perry’s dream about picking diamonds from a tree alludes to which of the following stories?
A. Exodus from Egypt
B. Abraham and Isaac
C. The Flood
D. The Fall of Man
4. Dick most commonly associates his “normalcy” with which of the following?
A. religious belief
B. middle-class status
C. whiteness
D. heterosexuality
5. Consider the following passage: “[T]hey were remarkable photographs, and what made them so was Perry’s expression, his look of unflawed fulfillment, of beatitude, as though at last, and as in one of his dreams, a tall yellow bird had hauled him to heaven” (138). Which of the following words most contributes to the passage’s religious overtones?
A. remarkable
B. unflawed
C. beatitude
D. dreams
6. Barbara’s contention that “What you [Perry] have done, whether right or wrong, is your own doing” (162) most closely relates to which of the following debates?
A. nature versus nurture
B. personal responsibility versus social determinism
C. moral relativism versus moral absolutism
D. legal guilt versus moral culpability
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. Where does Dewey dream of one day moving? What broader motifs or themes does this dream echo?
2. What crime scene evidence leads Dewey to believe the Clutters’ killer was “emotionally involved” with them?
3. What nicknames does Dick use for Perry, and what do they imply about the men’s relationship?
4. Which details of Perry’s family history suggest that there may be something, as he puts it, psychologically “wrong” with
him?
5. What sort of treatment did Perry experience in the orphanages and why?
6. What does Perry mean when, quoting Chief Crowfoot, he reflects, “‘A breath of buffalo in the wintertime’—that exactly evoked his view of life” (171)?
Part 3
Reading Check
1. Who first tips the police off to Dick and Perry’s possible involvement in the Clutter case?
2. What life-altering injury did Dick sustain in a car crash?
3. What do the police find in the apartment building in Las Vegas?
4. Where do Perry and Dick spend Christmas?
5. During police questioning, what does Dick ultimately say about his role in the murders?
6. Why did Perry insist on tying up Nancy himself?
7. How much money did Perry and Dick ultimately get from the Clutters?
Multiple Choice
1. Walter Hickock characterizes his son’s attitude towards society as which of the following?
A. aggrieved
B. indifferent
C. fearful
D. respectful
2. Which of the following contributes to Barbara’s fear of Perry?
A. He closely resembles their abusive father.
B. He reminds her of her family’s misfortunes.
C. He bullied her when they were children.
D. He played a role in their sister Flo’s decline.
3. Dick’s claim that “most real men had the same desires [for preteen and teenage girls] he had” (232) most strongly reflects which of the following?
A. his genuine beliefs
B. his contempt for Perry’s disinterest in sex
C. his insecurity regarding his own masculinity
D. his inability to distinguish right from wrong
4. Which of the following quotes hints at the role societal inequality plays in the Clutter killings?
A. “Hickock tells us you’re [Perry] a natural-born killer. Says it doesn’t bother you a bit” (267).
B. “But Dick was too ashamed to face it [the fact that there was no safe]” (275).
C. “The glory of having everybody at his mercy, that’s what excited him [Dick]” (275).
D. “It was like I wasn’t part of it. More as though I was reading a story” (277).
5. How does Perry’s remark, “I thought he was a very nice gentleman. Soft-spoken. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat” (281) contribute to his characterization?
A. The repetition underscores his sense of powerlessness.
B. The word choice reflects his intellectual aspirations.
C. The use of sentence fragments highlights his confused thinking.
D. The use of contrast mirrors the contradictions of his personality.
6. How does Dewey feel after hearing Perry’s confession?
A. dissatisfied and empty
B. angry and disgusted
C. mournful but relieved
D. sympathetic but determined
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. What does Barbara mean when she reflects, “Wives, children, a timid life are not for [men like her father]” (Part Three)?
2. How do Perry and Dick appear in Dewey’s dreams?
3. What state does Bobby find River Valley Farm in when he visits on Christmas? What is the symbolic significance of this?
4. How do the people of Holcomb react to the news of Dick and Perry’s arrest and why?
5. Why, according to Perry, did he not leave the Clutter house when he stepped outside after searching the two children’s rooms?
6. What memory triggered Perry’s murder of Mr. Clutter and why?
Part 4
Reading Check
1. Where does Perry stay while awaiting trial?
2. What is the name of the psychiatrist who interviews Perry and Dick?
3. To what does the defense’s closing argument appeal?
4. Who is Lowell Lee Andrews?
5. What is the M’Naghten Rule?
6. What does Andrews give to Dick before his execution?
7. In what year are Perry and Dick executed?
Multiple Choice
1. Which of the following best describes Perry’s plans to escape while awaiting trial?
A. practical
B. fanciful
C. violent
D. peaceful
2. Dr. Jones’s conclusions about Perry and Dick’s psychological state most directly raise questions about which of the following?
A. the accessibility of the American Dream
B. the healthiness of male gender norms
C. the extent to which people accept mortality
D. the nature of moral responsibility
3. Which characters serve as foils to Perry and Dick?
A. Donald Cullivan and Floyd Wells
B. Earl Wilson and Lowell Lee Andrews
C. George Ronald York and James Douglas Latham
D. Susan Kidwell and Bobby Rupp
4. Which of the following most distinguishes Andrews from other characters in the novel?
A. his attitude towards mortality
B. his attitude towards society
C. his attitude towards masculinity
D. his attitude towards religion
5. The “self-consciously casual conversation” (389) of those who attend Perry and Dick’s execution most strongly implies which of the following?
A. They find the presence of the press jarring.
B. They have no misgivings about the morality of capital punishment.
C. They do not want to dignify Perry and Smith with solemnity.
D. They privately find the spectacle of execution uncomfortable.
6. What does Dewey ultimately seem to find closure in?
A. the knowledge that justice was served to the Clutters’ killers
B. the sense that the positive legacy of the Clutters lives on
C. the hope that there will one day be a way to treat criminal insanity
D. the dream of one day retiring to the country
Short-Answer Response
Answer each of the following questions in a complete sentence or sentences. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.
1. How does Don Sullivan’s view of morality influence his desire to help Perry?
2. In his written statement for Dr. Jones, how does Perry describe the effect his first imprisonment had on him? What does this suggest about incarceration?
3. What are some of the traits that lead Dr. Jones to conclude Dick “shows fairly typical characteristics of what would psychiatrically be called a severe character disorder” (Part Four)?
4. How does the defense team depict capital punishment in their closing argument?
5. How does Perry feel about Andrews and why?
6. What is “The Corner” and what is the significance of its proximity to death row?
Quizzes – Answer Key
Part 1
Reading Check
1. River Valley Farm
2. sunken or buried treasure
3. a car accident
4. Bonnie
5. He wanted to see an old prison friend, Willie-Jay.
6. the following morning, when a classmate of Nancy’s arrives and receives no answer at the door
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Bonnie experienced episodes of depression after the birth of each of her children, and these episodes eventually extended into a more chronic condition. While we might now consider this postpartum depression, the fact that she improved while temporarily living away from her family suggests she might also have been unhappy (consciously or not) with the era’s gender norms generally and with motherhood particularly.
2. Herb Clutter’s “leisure” activities generally involve some sort of moral or civic purpose: He is or has been a church leader, chairman of the local 4-H club, chairman of the Kansas Conference of Farm Organizations, and a member of the Federal Farm Credit Board. He does not take part in hobbies that don’t “accomplish something.”
3. Perry wants to wear a black stocking on his face during the robbery, which suggests he may have misgivings about killing the Clutters (i.e., he wants to ensure they can’t identify him later, which implies they will still be alive). Dick makes no real effort to procure the stockings, implying that he either doesn’t care about avoiding or outright plans on murdering the Clutters.
4. Perry respected Willie-Jay for his relative intellectualism and perhaps also for his faith. The fact that Willie-Jay took an interest in Perry also validated the latter’s sense that he is capable of more in life: “[O]nly Willie-Jay had ever recognized his worth, his potentialities […] had seen him, for all his moralizing, as he saw himself—‘exceptional,’ ‘rare,’ ‘artistic.’” (51-52).
5. Dick’s family seems very “normal” by the standards of the time. His parents are married and live in a “modest farmhouse” with his younger brother; their interactions with one another (and with Dick) are affectionate, and they take part in shared activities like Sunday dinner and watching sports on television.
Part 2
Reading Check
1. Bobby Rupp (Nancy’s boyfriend)
2. a former cellmate of Dick’s who told him about the safe Mr. Clutter supposedly kept his money in
3. They buy several things with bad checks and then pawn the items for money before the checks bounce.
4. a hunting lodge in Alaska
5. He believes the motive was likely personal (rather than, for example, robbery).
6. because they’ve run out of money (Dick spends most of it on alcohol and prostitutes)
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Dewey wants to build a farm on a plot of land a few miles outside of Garden City. He describes it in a way that connects it to other visions of paradise in the work: “He was very certain that someday his own oasis of oaks and elms would stand upon those shadeless plains” (121).
2. The box mattress the killer(s) pulled out for Mr. Clutter, the pillow they placed under the head of Kenyon, and the fact that they “tucked in” Bonnie and Nancy suggest to Dewey that the murderer(s) must have felt a “certain twisted tenderness” for the Clutters (119).
3. Dick uses several pet names for Perry that would be more typical of a romantic relationship: honey, baby, etc. The nicknames reflect the homoerotic overtones of the relationship (and also position Perry as the “woman” in the partnership).
4. Perry’s mother struggled with alcoholism, and two of his siblings committed suicide. This suggests a possible history of mental illness in the family.
5. Perry experienced physical and psychological abuse in the orphanages. This was partly due to his race (Perry is half Cherokee) and partly due to behavior the orphanages considered abnormal (e.g., bedwetting).
6. The quote emphasizes life’s transience, which is an attitude towards life and death that both Perry and the novel share.
Part 3
Reading Check
1. Floyd Wells
2. a concussion
3. a box of Perry’s things
4. Miami
5. that he and Perry planned the robbery together, but that Perry actually carried out all of the murders
6. because he believed Dick wanted to rape her
7. $40 or $50
Short-Answer Response
1. Barbara describes her father as highly skilled at traditionally “masculine” tasks: building, hunting, fixing gadgets, etc. However, she suggests that this adventurousness, independence, and relative disinterest in other people don’t translate well to the domestic sphere.
2. Dewey imagines Perry and Dick as larger-than-life, preternaturally evil villains; when he dreams of shooting them, for example, the bullets simply pass through them as they laugh.
3. Bobby finds the house and farm in a state of disrepair; the fruit in the orchards is rotting, the lawn is “parched and shabby” and crossed with tire tracks (238), the buildings are abandoned, etc. These signs of decay evoke a sense of lost or spoiled paradise.
4. Holcomb’s citizens are reluctant to accept that Perry and Dick killed the Clutters because they feel the murderer must been someone from the community; the idea that “two unknown men, two thieving strangers, were solely responsible” doesn’t satisfy their sense of the crime’s magnitude (266).
5. Perry says he felt powerless to leave—or, alternatively, fated to remain. He explains that he “had to know what was going to happen. The end” (277).
6. A memory of crawling after a silver dollar in Nancy’s room comes to Perry as he kneels by Mr. Clutter. Perry’s shame at the pettiness of his actions and his rage at the people and society he believes reduced him to that state trigger the murder: “Silver dollar. The shame. Disgust. And they’d [the parole board] told me never to come back to Kansas. But I didn’t realize what I’d done till I heard the sound” (282).
Part 4
Reading Check
1. a cell in the Sheriff’s Residence (one normally used for female prisoners)
2. Dr. W. Mitchell Jones
3. the jurors’ Christian faith (and in particular the idea that capital punishment is immoral)
4. a young death-row inmate convicted of killing his family while in college and diagnosed with schizophrenia
5. a rule stating that the insanity defense only applies in cases where an individual doesn’t understand the legal definitions of right and wrong
6. an excerpt from “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”
7. 1965
Multiple Choice
Short-Answer Response
1. Sullivan is a devout Christian who believes in the idea of original sin—i.e., a sinful nature common to all people. He therefore feels that he can’t judge Perry, explaining that “for the little we know of God’s will what has happened to [Perry] could have happened to [him]” (301).
2. Perry says that he believed his sentence was “unjust” and grew “very bitter” while imprisoned. This suggests that incarceration may not deter crime and could even encourage it by feeding into prisoners’ perceptions (sometimes justified) that society is “against” them.
3. Dr. Jones cites Dick’s lack of self-control, inferiority complex, tendency towards grandiose claims and actions, emotional distance from others, and disregard for “usual moral standards” as evidence of a “character disorder” (340).
4. The defense team argues that capital punishment is morally wrong as well as counterproductive in its effects. It demonstrates a disregard for the intrinsic value of human life, which “merely cheapens human life and gives rise to more murders” (350).
5. Perry dislikes Andrews because he is jealous of him. Andrews was a student at college before he killed his family, and he is extremely intelligent and well-read; since Perry did not have access to this formal education, he deeply resents Andrews.
6. “The Corner” is the nickname the death-row inmates use for the warehouse in which the state carries out executions. It is partially visible from death row, meaning that the prisoners there live both figuratively and literally under the shadow of their own mortality.
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