Question 3-Final Forum

[Kamryn Balson]

True personality was revealed by what each man said. Dick being hung first stated "May the Lord have mercy on your soul" to all the witnesses in the room which is interesting since the observers were probably thinking the exact same thing about Dick. Dick's last statement demonstrated a self obsessed person because even though he was dying he couldn't apologize or tell the truth. I partly believe Dick had more of a part in the murders because Smith seems to often think through his actions, so committing this crime by himself doesn't seem plausible. Dick sees the witnesses and detectives as evil and wrong because he was accused of something he didn't do however watching someone commit a crime and doing nothing to stop it makes him the cruel individual that should ask for mercy on his soul. Till the moment he died, Dick was thinking of himself and that he was the that was cheated out of a life. While Smith stated "It would be meaningless to apologize for what I did. Even inappropriate. But I do. I apologize" which characterizes him as unselfish. As Smith was about to die he wasn't thinking about himself, but about the Clutters because he had a guilty conscious unlike Dick. Smith wanted all the eye witnesses to know how he truly felt about the crime he committed, and even though there was nothing he could do about it then Smith was clearing his mind. The quote also demonstrates the different types of people and how some feel guilty about their actions, like Perry, while others are too self absorbed to realize their crime, like Dick. There are many different types of people in the world but the reality is everyone is one or the other. There's either the type of person that has to clear their mind or the type that still sees themselves as the victim like Andrew and Hickock. This trait is mostly revealed when time is running out.   

[mollyfernandez]

I agree that both last words describe their personalities but I would say that Perry's last words were more selfish than Dick's. Perry was trying to rid himself of his guilt and wanted to purify himself from the crime that he committed. This is selfish because who knows if he is genuinely sorry or just wants to make himself feel better in his last minutes on the earth. I believe that apologizing for such a crime is a selfish act. When one apologizes, they know that whatever they say can not change what they did or bring peace to those affected by it. Their sole motivation for repenting is to make themselves feel better that they have admitted that what they did was bad in order to makes themselves appear better in the eyes of the community. If I had to say, I would say that Dick's words were more brave than Perry's. Dick's words reflected how he felt until the moment he died and did not stop fighting his case until the end. He wasn't trying to be someone he's not by apologizing for something he felt no sorrow for since he knew that would not change any of the opinions in the audience or bring the Clutter family back to life. These last words reflected their personalities. Dick did not care how people felt about him. However Perry was very influenced by other's opinions and wanted everyone to see him as a person who just made a mistake not the evil person that he was portrayed as.