In Cold Blood Nature Vs Nurture Essay

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Will nature or nurture have a greater impact on what pushes one to commit a cold and brutal murder? In the book "In Cold Blood" there are a number of examples over how being raised affects a person throughout their whole life. This fuels the argument of “nature versus nurture” in determining why a person would commit murder. Nature is defined as qualities inherited through genetics. Nurture is defined as your upbringing, or the influences of the environment, media, and the care given by one’s parents or guardians. Although nature has an impact on one's life, nurture will leave a greater imprint on your life and will guide your decisions, despite the consequences.
The Clutter family was your picture perfect family at the time, a husband and …show more content…

Perry, bringing brought up through foster homes and having an extremely distressing childhood, is a prime example of how nurture is brought into play. The way his environment was as a child, shaped the rest of his life, in a negative way. He had a traumatic childhood, from being beaten with a flashlight nonstop to not being able to see his actual blood family. Having being brought up in this way, Perry did not have as many experiences as one who grew up in a loving family, leaving him at a disadvantage. Since he was brought up in a way that no one should be, he would not know right from wrong as much as someone else. Though, he does know murdering is wrong, but this was how a criminal would get by after just being released from prison. Now, being nurtured like this does not justify the criminal act the Perry and Dick committed, but it does have a major affect on the decisions one makes. Now on the other hand, nature does have an impact on one’s life also, but not as much of an impact as nurture will have. Nature, which is explained as qualities inherited throughout genetics, will affect decisions made throughout one’s life. Perry is a prime example, one of his siblings killed himself, the father was not around in his life, but his sister on the other hand, had a family and her life together. Although Perry’s sister does hates him. Who can blame her, her brother cold bloodily murdered a family. “I was always …show more content…

This is the spark of the argument of “nature versus nurture” to determine why one would commit a murder. Although nature still plays a role in impacting on one's life, nurture will leave a greater imprint on your life and will guide your decisions. What do you think, does nature or nurture have a greater influence on committing a cold blooded

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