How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
He "loathed Barbara, and just the other day he had told Dick, "The only real regret I have—I wish the hell my sister had been in that house." (2.194)
Admit it—you've sometimes wished your pain-in-the-butt big brother or sister would just disappear. Somehow, though, we get the feeling that Perry might actually kill Barbara. (Barbara does, too.) We know what sets him off is envy and resentment, and he resents his sister for getting an education and being pretty successful. Do you think Perry would have actually harmed his sister?
Quote #8
[…] her husband—by profession an insurance salesman, by inclination a carpenter—had built around [the garden] a white picket fence, and inside it a house for the family dog, and a sandbox and swings for the children. At the moment, all four—dog, two little boys, and a girl—were playing there under a mild sky […] (3.101)
Capote as narrator only refers to Perry's sister as "Mrs. Johnson," even though we already know her as Barbara or Bobo. This is how he lets us know which family she wants to be a part of—the one she created with her husband. Can't quite blame her for wanting to distance herself from the crazy Smiths. She has secret fears that she's going to end up just like them—suicidal or a criminal.
Quote #9
He missed Dick. Many thoughts of Dick, he wrote in his diary. Since their arrest they had not been allowed to communicate, and that, freedom aside, was what he most desired—to talk to Dick, to be with him again. (4.21)
Dick's all Perry really has left—he's his family at this point. It's obvious that he doesn't have a clue what Dick really thinks about him.