After he was out of the homes and living with his mother again in San Francisco he began to show glimpses of the man he would one day become. Perry states that "In Frisco I was continuously in trouble. I started to run around with a gang all of which were older than myself. My mother was always drunk, never in a fit condition to properly care for us" (275). It is obvious that Perry's life was chaotic, but it was not his fault that both his parents were unable to do anything to help him. Perry's life of crime began due to the environment he was raised in. .
Perry not only grew up in a toxic environment, but he also may have been born with a certain temperament that caused him to act the way he did. In the article "How We Become What We Are," Winifred Gallagher discusses how temperament and the environment one comes from has a profound effect on how a person will act later in life. She cites a study done on English terriers in which "[h]arsh treatment would render the feisty animal vicious; permissiveness or neglect would produce an uncontrollable bully" (1). She later states a correlation to this study and the behavior of humans. If as a child they are subject to abuse and harsh treatment, most of them become violent later in life. We can see this connection made with Perry. As a child he went through constant physical and mental attacks from his parents which lead to his violent nature he developed in the future. Gallagher continues her argument by asserting that "thousands of children aren't being brought up by, but only domiciled with, parents who are indifferent, incompetent, or unsocialized themselves" (2) and that "we're running a crime factory that is turning out little sociopaths" (2). A child is molded by the experiences they have in their early years. In Perry's case, his incompetent parents and abuse from various sources changed his life for the worse.
