In this, his first novel, Truman Capote is concerned less about social issues than about personal themes; however, Other Voices, Other Rooms does emphasize the important role of family in the development of the individual. Joel Knox's family is typical of those found in Capote's novels; in effect he has no family.

His mother is dead, his father never is really a presence in his life, and he must create his own version of family as he defines his relationship to other individuals, most of whom are as isolated as he.

Until he can experience some type of familial love, he remains the outsider and social misfit.

Perhaps because of his own unhappy childhood and his somewhat strained relationship with his mother, Capote often portrays young men who find nurturing, maternal influences in a character other than the biological parent. After the mother's death in Other...