Th3m3s

Perry and Dick’s criminal tendencies are revealed to have underlying medical causes (Perry suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, and Dick has brain damage from a concussion). The book seems to touch base with the question of whether the same standards are applicable to everyone, including people with mental disorders.
 * Mental illness:**

The theme self-image is directly related to understanding Dick and Perry's reasons. They both have been in bad accidents involving bad injuries and because of their mental injuries they have a very high sense of self image.
 * Self Image:**

Herb Clutter has made a wonderful life for himself--his daughter, after all, bakes apple pies. But Herb Clutter's American idyll is abruptly and arbitrarily shattered by two petty criminals. The American dream is fragile, and it only functions if marginal people (ex-cons) are not present.
 * American Dream:**

Perry is engrossed with guilt after the killings of the Clutter family. One has to wonder if the potential paranoid schitzophrenia illness developed before or after he murdered the Clutter family. An arguement proving the latter insists that regret and guilt engulfed Perry's mental state, causing a relapse in his mind and him to revert to a regressive thought process. The counter arguement provides evidence of how his abnormal childhood and absent settling could have manifested inside Perry, breaking sometime during prison time or briefly after.
 * Guilt/Regret:**