Dear Parents,
In my American Literature class, our teacher assigned us books to read. Out of luck, I got stuck with the book “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote. I almost died at first because the book did not start off very well, but after I realized that this book is still relevant. For those who have not read the book yet, the story is about the 1959 murders of the Clutter family, a four-member family in Holcomb, Kansas. The book brings you into the investigation, the murderer’s actions during the time, and also background knowledge either on the family or the murderers.
As I read, the only characters that really caught my attention were Nancy and Perry and how the two grew up. For those who read the book: you would all agree that Nancy was a pretty good kid and she lived a good life even before the incident. It was all because she had a loving and supportive family. As for Perry, he was not as lucky growing up as Nancy. If you were to review Perry’s story of him growing up, you would understand why he turned out that way as an adult. Not only was his parents divorced, but his father, who he stayed with, was very abusive towards him.
I personally, had a fairly good home environment. My family were loving and supportive but very busy most of the time. I have a pretty big family, so I was always stuck with babysitting my little siblings and little cousins. Up till now, those same little kids look up to me as an adult figure who would always take care of them. I know the feeling parents get when your kids start to either misbehave or even start following the wrong path growing up. When I was introduced to Nancy and Perry, the little kids in my family first came to mind.
The same should happen to parents when you read this book, your kids should come tom mind. Nowadays, we have kids and teens more worst, than Perry growing up or as an adult. A good example are the kids and teens in the television show, Scared Straight. The show is about young people being sent to prison just to teach them a lesson. Most of the turned out that way because of bad influence either at home or from peers. After knowing that, isn’t it still the parent’s job to take responsibility for their kids?
The whole purpose of this letter was to help parents acknowledge the situation with their children. I believe parents should take responsibility, as they should, and put more time into their kids now as they are still young. As they are young, their futures are shaped by the environment they live in now, either at home or school. Parents have that responsibility to help shape futures. Wouldn’t you agree?
After reading the book, I don’t think no parent in the world would want their children to grow up as Perry in the book. By observing both Perry and Nancy’s lives growing up, it should give an idea of how your children may grow up depending on how they live now. Although most would show more sympathy towards Nancy because of what had happened to her and her family. We shouldn’t forget that Perry also had may misfortunes in his life. They may be gone, but their story lives on to teach us!
