All events that happen during childhood can have a good or bad impact. Children often learn to cope with certain circumstances differently than adults. Truman Capote's childhood insecurities are psychologically conveyed through the tragic events of In Cold Blood. According to William L. Nance, associate professor of English, "Some knowledge of Capote's early life is essential to understanding his work, for this work, even through In Cold Blood, bears the clear marks of his early life" (133 ). . Capote's parents divorced when he was very young. Throughout his childhood, he was passed from relative to relative, each living in small southern towns. Capote himself even declared that it was “the most precarious childhood I knew” (133). He often did poorly in school, even though “. . .Psychological tests proved that his intelligence quotient (IQ) was above genius level” (np). Truman Capote's Cold Blood begins by describing a wonderfully organized and well-made family named the Clutters. Mr. Herbert Clutter goes about his daily business tending to the ranch and planning the family's activities for the day. On the other side of Kansas, the reader discovers two men named Dick Hickock and Perry Smith. As Capote describes the two men and the business they are attending to, it appears that they are preparing their car for a long journey. The next morning, Susan Kidwell, Nancy Herbert's friend, discovers that Nancy and the rest of her family have been brutally murdered. Police have no idea who could have committed such a crime in a peaceful community like Holcomb, Kansas. With only a bloody shoe print as evidence, Alvin Dewey, the KBI agent in charge of...... middle of paper ...... a: In Cold Blood preserves deep traces of the early stories, and of the intellectual the harshness so evident in the non-fiction novel was really present all the time” (133). Capote puts himself in the place of these characters. However, not only does he put himself in their shoes and describe his own point of view and his own story through them, but he also constructs their stories from himself. By doing this, he can easily relate to the characters and write about them. Capote knew how to use his flamboyant personality to his advantage. Even though it was his shield to cover his loneliness as a child, it helped him when he became an adult and in his life as a celebrity. He turned his tragic past into a story that is an incredible read. Few authors can devote so much of their lives to a story like In Cold Blood, without participating in it themselves..