Breakfast at Tiffanys is a novel about a ditsy, attention seeker: Holly Golightly. Holly is your stereotypical popular girl. She moved to New York in search of a new life, Holly has never been good at staying in one place and once she gets settled she leaves, she meets someone who makes her feel at home and the story if about how she handles that relationship. My favorite thing about this book is the double entendre it contains as well as the deeper meaning behind a seemingly simple story and its characters.
Sometimes a name can mean more than something to catch someones’ attention;especially a name as unique as Holly Golightly. In one of the first scenes, something easily overlooked, yet immensely important is introduced. Holly’s mailbox is marked in a strange and different way: it states on the label, “Miss Holly Golightly, Traveling”(Capote 53). This supports the idea that Holly is hesitant to move, or rather do anything that involves settling down. She believes that by adding this title to her mailbox, it allows her to come and go as she pleases. Another example of this lifestyle is the constant state of Holly’s apartment. Un-packed boxes and miscellaneous clutter, as well as a slightly kinky cat, display the unkempt state of Holly’s apartment and the distracted process of her mind. Cat is symbolic of Holly’s weariness of becoming attached. Holly refuses to name the cat for it does not belong to her, “we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I.” (Capote 90) They are merely acquaintances that pass by each other, and do not know each other. Thus they assume eachothers circumstances and identities. They have both been stripped of something important to them-understanding. She wants love, wealth, and stability, but she knows that she values her autonomy too much to let it be taken away. Holly lives her life half in fantasy to avoid responsibilities that might threaten her freedom. The novel’s central theme is the tension between the need for security and the desire for freedom. She is unwilling to accept life as it is and merely assumes that if she searches hard enough that good things will come to her.develop more
Holly struggles with the “tension between the need for security and the desire for freedom” (source 1), introduce quote with title and author as well as some sort of multi-personality disorder that plagues her. She has a hard time living in the real world, and her mind has a hard time leaving her fantasy world. All Holly desires in life is love, wealth and stability. This is the main reason Holly becomes a prostitute “All I hope, I hope he’s rich. He must be rich”(Capote 8). Holly is certain of the type of man she wants. Whether or not she can achieve it is clear, and Holly doesn't like what she sees. Holly desires the comfort of someone who loves her, but she doesn't care about the emotions of it. Like many women, Holly is driven by many monetary values, such as money and the comfort it provides. This causes her to go for guys who don’t respect her or are totally unrespectable. The front that Holly puts up is just a facade to mask her insecurities, and she surrounds herself with shallow people. Her reasoning is never clarified; however, it is revealed that she wishes to put her name on as many lips as possible.
The past can have a haunting influence of how people react to their surroundings, and many of Holly’s life choices are a direct result of her past. Her brother has a small part in the novel, yet his impact is overwhelming. Holly compares love to her feeling for her brother. He is associated with emotions such as security, belonging, and family. Holly has a growing sense of losing Fred and when the news of his death arrives; all of her sense of comfort and trust dies with him. why From this point forward, Holly has an immensely decreased sense of trust and overall desire to live. Introduce quote “Holly lives, a world symbolized by her love for the jewelry store Tiffany & Co., a place that, as she explains, makes her feel as though nothing bad could ever happen.”Cite quote The entire novel mirrors a depressive tone, and this is the first major theme throughout the novel. Another impacting event is her brief marriage to Doc, “whom she loves but cannot stay with because she cannot compromise her independence and individuality. Although she desires security, she hates cages of any kind; she is a "wild thing" who refuses to be confined to any role not of her own making.” cite quotationThis is because of Holly’s uncertainty and spawns her interest in experimenting in new personalities, trying to find herself.always refuses to give up her identity to be something she is not.introduce quotation “She is, as O. J. Berman says, a "phony," but a real phony.”(Gale source 3)Holly refers to herself as a “Traveler”; a wild thing and everyone knows not to fall in love with a wild thing.
One of the only things keeping Holly sane is her good friend, “Fred”, the narrator. He represents her idea of a perfect man in all perspectives besides romantic. The narrator, being a deeply-rooted theme is the similarity between Holly and the Narrator, and Truman Capote. introduce quote “His character of Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffanys has been a manifestation of his own journey from a small southern town to the bright lights of New York City”(Gale source 1) Like the Narrator, Capote was openly homosexual. The narrator, who was called “Maude” by Holly, is also open about his sexuality. Maude is a synonym for a gay person and is used by Holly to highlight Capote’s subtle homosexual undertones. And again, the Narrator offers his complementary opinion on an attractive man. All of these examples support the idea of both of those characters representing both sides of Capote’s identity. A secondary supporting detail is the similarity of Capote and the Narrators birthday and the character traits shared by Capote and Holly share. “nameless writer dubbed “Fred” who becomes fascinated with his mysteriously eccentric, social climbing neighbor Holly Golightly, reportedly an amalgam of many society women Capote knew” (Broadway source 4) The striking similarities can mean only one thing, that Breakfast at Tiffany’s is an allegory to Capote’s psychological identity. This secret autobiography is perhaps the greatest and most complex secret that this book has to offer; an allegory perhaps. Capote as well as several characters in the novel struggle with alcoholism: “Capote succumbed to alcoholism, drug addiction, and poor health, and he died in 1984, shortly before his sixtieth birthday.”(Gale source 3). It is very apparent in the novel as it seems to be referred to on almost every-other page. The uncanny similarities between his characters and Capote’s real life events is so clear that they must be connected and this is the real reason for this obscure novel.
