A Dream Deferred

Jack Badger

In Cold Blood incorporated an interesting blend, or versions, of the American Dream through its composition of vastly different characters. Herb Clutter, a picture perfect representation of contentedness (a synonym in my opinion for the American Dream concept, at least during this time period) was robbed of his dream the very second his world was invaded by Perry and Dick.
Al Dewey’s dream was essentially to obtain a life similar to Herb Clutter’s before his untimely death. Instead of working a job that removed him from the sanctuary of his family, he often fantasized about purchasing a many acre property and retiring to the personal rural scene, much like the Clutter family found themselves accustomed to. Coincidentally enough, Dewey’s dream was stolen the very same night of the Clutter family massacre, for his wife could never live in an isolated region after the security blanket covering the Clutter household was destroyed.

Dick’s adaptation of the American Dream had always been deformed and juvenile. His exploits being chronicled in Capote’s novel are a testament to that. Always craving a life that was out of his reach, and thinking that there had to be a shortcut to achieving life on easy street, Dick never grasped what the American Dream truly represented. If he wanted pointers, he could have asked Herb Clutter, who would have explained to him that hard work and an optimistic, motivated personality would carry him to the Promised Land he so desperately sought, but never really wanted to work for. Instead, he chose to steal it from Herb, a futile action because a Dream can never be taken, especially by force.

It’s difficult to decipher what Perry would consider his American Dream, for his childhood (the time when we learn how to dream) was so full of nightmare, distrust, and evil that derailed his subconscious development, leaving it disfigured and stationary. The rest of his life was spent trying to run away from his past, a quest effectively embodied in Capote’s retelling of the days following that fateful night in the Clutter household. One could relate the events of that night with Perry’s adolescence, both being full of horrors and sins few of us have ever dreamed of.

And, like the life Perry had before the Clutter murders, and the life he had immediately thereafter and up until his execution, each expansive period was characterized by Perry trying to outrun events that would never really leave him. Perhaps his American Dream was to finally, and permanently, evade his past, a feat that ultimately came true in the unfortunate form of his execution.

Langston Hughes’ poem, although in his eyes pertaining to the racist aspects of American society (as the prompt describes), can be juxtaposed to the dreams of the four aforementioned characters of In Cold Blood. Hughes ruminates over the fate of a deferred dream, and in what manner it meets it fate. What this novel explains to us, through the lives of these four characters, is that the American Dream, and realistically any dream in general, can be taken from us without a moments notice, or without a fair opportunity to fight for it. This is what makes a dream so fragile, so delicate, and so worth preserving at all costs.