Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Breakfast at Tiffany's

by Truman Capote

Chernovol Valeria

• Breakfast at Tiffany's is the story of a young woman in World War II-era New York who hobnobs with famous people, gets into a lot of trouble, and breaks many hearts along the way, all while struggling to find her place in the world. And it's one of Truman Capote's most famous works, due in large part to the film adaptation of it. The novel was written in 1958, and in 1961 the film version starring Audrey Hepburn was released.

• First Person (Central Narrator)

Breakfast at Tiffany's  is told in the first person from the point of view of an unnamed narrator. And the narrator in this story is interesting since he is telling us his story but, in the end, the novel is mostly about Holly. In this respect, he would seem to operate as a third person narrator, since in many ways he's telling us someone else's story while relating his own. But the novel is framed around the narrator's experience in New York, his experiences with Holly, and his telling of the events that occur (which is what makes this first person). There are definite advantages to this since Holly would probably be an unreliable narrator of her own life. And since so much of Holly's character depends on her interaction with other people, it seems only fitting that we get to know her through the eyes of someone who has the good luck (or misfortune depending on which camp you fall in) to know her.

Isolation, the desire for it, and the fear of it, are central themes in  Breakfast at Tiffany's . In many ways, isolation reflects a desire to remain unconfined by close personal relationships since a life spent alone presents no complicated attachments to other people. But too much isolation also proves to be a source of great fear as characters realize that we all desire a sense of belonging at some point in our lives. We see isolation propel some characters and we see it prevent others from ever moving forward in their lives, and it impacts most aspects of the novel.

Isolation

• Friendship is a complicated thing. It can be wonderful and fulfilling and it can also be painful and devastating. The friendships in this novel are, for the most part, superficial and are often based on what one person can get from another. But every once in a while true friendship develops and we notice this even more because of how anomalous it is. These friendships represent the particularly interesting relationships in  Breakfast at Tiffany's  because they allow us to see instances of loyalty, tenderness, and caring in the midst of a world that seems to be lacking these things.

Friendship

• On a basic level,  Breakfast at Tiffany's  is about looking forward to the future and about the dreams, hopes, and plans we make for ourselves. In many ways these dreams sustain the characters, as they are propelled by the promise of something better than what the present can provide. But when these same hopes, and plans are shattered, this has devastating effects on the dreamers. Suddenly, they have to revise what they've been looking forward to, and this throws some characters into a tailspin as they're suddenly forced to reevaluate their lives.

Dreams Hopes Plans

• Memory and the past are both positive and negative forces in  Breakfast at Tiffany's . For some characters, memories are the only truly happy things they have in their lives since those recollections represent a simpler and safer time. But, in other instances, memories and the past simply won't let go of their hold on the characters' lives and those people are forced to face them again and again. These memories become harmful or sad when characters can't move past them or can't look beyond them to the hope of finding happiness in the present and in the future.

Memory and the past

• There's no single idea of "home" in  Breakfast at Tiffany's , and this is what makes it such an interesting theme. For some, home is a feeling of belonging, and it doesn't matter where this is. For others, home has to do with the people who surround them and who make them feel safe. Home is not just the literal place where one lives. It's not the apartment or house that gives someone an address. It might be an entire city or the feeling of being near family, and it means different things to different people depending on their life experiences.

Idea of "home"

• Holly Golightly . Holly is one of those literary characters that academic folks love to talk about since she isn't...
• The Narrator . Although we never learn the narrator's real name, he's still central to the novel, more for what...
• Fred and Doc Golightly . Fred, Holly's brother, and Doc, the man who took her and Fred in as children and who she's...
• José Ybarra- Jaegar . Like most of the other characters in the novel, José is interesting because of what he can...
• Joe Bell . Joe's a pretty interesting guy in that he's kind of gruff and rough around the edges, but he's...

Characters

• Literary Fiction. As a genre, literary fiction depends a lot on characters, and there's no denying that Holly is pretty central to  Breakfast at Tiffany's . It's true that a lot happens in the story, and the events that occur certainly are exciting and salacious and necessary to the narrative. Holly's pregnancy, her arrest, the affair with José, the story about her time in Hollywood, and even the narrator's disastrous horseback ride in Central Park all drive the story. But, in the end, we think these dramatic elements all reflect attempts to reveal Holly's character to us. Each thing that happens results in a fuller picture of who Holly is, and in this way the plot serves to create character depth. In the end, the novel is a study of Holly Golightly, and that's why we think it qualifies as literary fiction.

Genre

• New York City during World War II

Breakfast at Tiffany's  is set in New York during World War II. The war doesn't figure prominently in the story in that we don't see the main characters in combat and most of them seem untouched by the realities of war. But the specter of war sort of hovers throughout the novel as we hear about rationing things like peanut butter, we learn that most apartments lack of telephones during this time, and most devastatingly, we are told about the loss of Holly's brother Fred who dies while serving as a soldier.

The city of New York figures pretty prominently in the story. Holly loves the city, loves the Brooklyn Bridge, loves the "lights, the river" (12.4), and she vows to return with her kids so they can see the things she loves. New York offers an exciting background to the story and it lends the narrative a definite energy. It's hard to imagine the story of Holly Golightly happening anywhere else.

Setting

• Direct, Straightforward

Capote isn't afraid to be blunt, and he doesn't shy away from using language that many readers might find shocking or offensive. But since so much of the writing in the novel is dialogue from Holly, this seems only fitting she sure isn't afraid to be blunt either.

Holly throws around some incredibly derogatory language here and she resorts to huge generalizations about people based on sexual preference. Yet we have to remember that writing style is one of the tools an author has at his or her disposal to help create a character, and this passage seems quintessentially Holly to us. We might cringe at some of her words, but we also have to recognize this as Capote being totally in tune with the character he's created.

Writing Style

• Holly's cat is a constant reminder of the lack of connection she feels to those around her. For much of the story, he represents her unwillingness (or maybe her inability) to feel tied down to anyone or anything, and the fact that she won't name him further emphasizes this: "We just sort of took up by the river one day, we don't belong to each other: he's an independent, and so am I". Holly won't claim the cat as her own because that would signify that she's putting down roots, and this is something she's clearly adverse to doing.

Symbolism Imagery Allegory

• Holly's Sunglasses / Masks

Holly is rarely without her dark glasses, and these quite obviously prevent people from seeing what's going on behind them. Her eyes are almost always covered up, making it difficult to know what she's feeling at any given moment (you know, the whole "eyes are the window to the soul" thing). The dark glasses represent yet another way for Holly to keep those around her from getting too close and the shades are a physical and literal way for her to cover herself up, to prevent herself from being exposed. They serve, in many ways, as a mask.

• Birdcage

Holly gives the narrator an antique birdcage for Christmas, but she doesn't like what it means one bit. She appreciates "its fantasy" (7.4), but she cannot "bear to see anything in a cage" (7.1), and it doesn't take much digging to figure out why. Holly never wants to feel caged in herself, never wants to feel like she can't just pick and go when the mood strikes her, and the birdcage represents the confinement she fights so hard against. It might be beautiful and momentarily desirable to her, but in the end it still functions as a way to keep whatever's inside it from being free, and this is an idea Holly simply can't get behind.

• Tiffany's

The jewelry store is Holly's escape; it's the place she can go where she feels entirely safe from the "mean reds" that plague her from time to time. Tiffany's is a refuge Holly, and it represents order and security and stability to her. She wants to find a place in the world that she can claim as her own, and she knows that such a place will feel like Tiffany's to her. Tiffany's symbolizes all that the outside world is not, and Holly holds onto it as her ideal.

Holly and the narrator have an argument on Christmas Eve.

The narrator realizes that he and Holly are on totally different wavelengths. She criticizes the things he writes about (and completely misunderstands them), and he just doesn't get the choices she makes. After the narrator insults her intelligence and wants to hit her, Holly throws him out of her apartment. The narrator vows never to talk to her again.

Conflict

Doc Golightly shows up in New York.

The narrator is still angry with Holly, but he notices a strange man watching her apartment and feels compelled to warn her about him. We learn that this man is Holly's husband and that she married him when she was just fourteen years old. He relates the sad story of her childhood and this complicates the narrator's perception of Holly (and ours, too).

Complication

Holly has an affair with José, gets pregnant, and plans to move to Brazil with him.

There are quite a few climactic moments in the novel, but this one is pretty big since it represents the big break between Holly and the narrator and Holly and New York (the city she loves). Once she has decided to leave, the narrator is forced to think about what his life will be like without her, and he also admits that he's a little in love with Holly. Everything changes from this point on, which is why we think it's the climax of the story.

Climax

• Denouement

José leaves Holly and she also loses the baby.

Now that Holly knows she's not going to live happily ever after with José and their baby, she starts to make some definite decisions about her future (sort of). She prepares to skip town, to leave behind the narrator and Joe Bell and the mess with Sally Tomato, and she starts to wind down her time in New York City (while finally admitting that she's scared of continuing her life as it has been). This would seem like the conclusion, yet there's still more to come.

Denouement

• Conclusion

Holly leaves New York and the narrator gets a postcard from her.

The conclusion is pretty open-ended, so we can't really say for sure what happens to Holly once and for all. But she does leave New York and we do know that she has made it to South America, so in terms of the actual plot, this signifies the end of the story's action. The postcard lets us know that she's no longer living in the brownstone, no longer hanging out with the narrator, and no longer socializing in the same circles.

Conclusion