Breakfast at Tiffany's Part II

The theme of being unable to escape from your past follows Holly Golightly throughout the novel. Each time a past lover or unwanted relic of her past turns up she flees. She never actually finds a solution to her problems, but continues to run from the cages of relationships and New York society. In the end she attempts to set her cat free because she feels her own freedom slipping away. However she then attempts to find him because she understands that she can't keep turning her back on her problems. Holly begins to realize her commitment issues, but they are never resolved. she serves her purpose as an example to the reader of a negative way of dealing with relationships, new and old, and Fred serves as the model for healthy relationships.

Breakfast At Tiffany's Pt 2

Holly Golightly never truly finds herself at the end of the story. I feel like once she becomes infatuated with Jose, it is proof that she really is a "real phoney" as OJ Berman originally said. She takes on the role of whatever character she believes will make her temporarlily happy without having to give too much commitment, as to which she might get hurt. Convincing herself into the role of Jose's "wife to be" is a perfect example of this. In order to keep herself preoccupied with the notion that she might actually become married to a rich handsome man, Holly begins to take on hobbies of being a housewife such as knitting, cooking, looking after Jose. All the while doing so in order to not let her guard down, and showing her fear of being committed to someone and letting them see her true emotions. I feel that Holly was her most velnerable at the end when she got rid of her cat. She realized that she was never actually going to be married to Jose, and that she might be happier living a different lifestyle than the one shed been living. Getting rid of cat was her only means of escape because if she couldnt be free, at least her cat could.

The whole idea of being lost and finding a place, a home, is a constant theme in "Breakfast at Tiffany's". Holly leaves her past as a child-bride behind in order to start a new life as an independent women. Unfortunately, she can not escape her childhood as it appears on her door step dressed up as her husband, Doc. Doc refers to the life that he provided for Holly as a "home", for Holly had everything provided for her. Holly left. Holly leaves California and ventures to New York to once again have a redo at life. Holly Golightly never gets too attached, is constantly on her toes, and hides behind an overt pair of black shades. She even refuses to bond or accept a cat in her possession. Only after ditching her cat on the side of the road in Spanish Harlem, does she realize that the cat did belong to her. She finally takes responsibility to owning something, to feeling connected to a creature outside of herself. Nevertheless, Holly still flees to Brazil, only to have an ambiguous ending of her never settling down. The cat on the other hand is take care of and finds a new identity in a different environment. Holly has no identity. She has the ability to look sixteen to thirty and disappears when she gets tired of a situation. Holly is above all lost. She is not grounded or connected to anything or anyone, making the concept of "home" a future endeavor that she would like to embody.

Holly abandons her cat in Spanish Harlem. She tells him he's a "tough guy" and to "beat it". She acts tough about leaving her cat behind until saying that she and the cat "did belong to each other." Then she states the recurring tragedy in her life which is, "not knowing what is yours until you've thrown it away."
In spite of Holly's attempts to be live a non-commital lifestyle in order to be 'free' and 'wild' she has only committed herself to a way of living in which she obliges herself to make costly sacrifices. Her decisions force her to commit to abandoning the things and people she becomes close to that is if she becomes close at all. This could explain the way people question her as a phony.
Her happiness may be a facade, just as the role she played when she told her cat to "fuck off" and "beat it." It's as though her life is one big role she's acting out; she is being tough to cover her vulnerability, maybe even to cover the traces of remorse she has for committing to the lifestyle she lives. Also, if she sees other people believing her free, wild and happy-go-lucky or Holly Go-Lightly facade then she can feel like maybe it is true. When she projects herself this way and other people believe it she is able to believe it herself.

The "Wild Thing"

Holly’s loathing of all things caged is a powerful theme of “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and one that gives great insight to her character. This theme is recurring in the novella, in such contexts as her aversion to the zoo and the extraction of the narrator’s promise to never put anything in the cage she gives him.

But the reason for this phobia is only made clear near the end of the tale; Holly is a self-proclaimed “wild thing” and cannot let herself be caged in any way. After her husband, Doc Golightly, comes to New York to reclaim her, she explains to Joe Bell, “[n]ever love a wild thing Mr. Bell…That was Doc’s mistake. He was always lugging home wild things. A hawk with a hurt wing…But you can’t give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they’re strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree”(74).

Holly was just another wild thing Doc had lugged home. Once he had made her strong, she had no option but to flee. She could not be tied down and tamed by a simple life in the country and so she fled. She had little choice, which the Doc presumably understands; it is simply her nature. She is like the hawk: a “wild thing.”

Response

Holly Golightly is a manipulative women as we have disscussed and craves attention as well as financial backing from her possible "clients." Whether these men are in fact lovers or she is instead a high brow prositute doesn't really matter. Ultimately she just needs money and to maintain a certain lifestyle she is accustomed to or perhaps just enjoys. She is possibly a caricature of a struggling upper east side girl but really it has nothing to do with the upper east side and everything to do with being a socialite.

While reading Breakfast at Tiffany's at our kitchen table, I started talking to my roommate about the book and the movie. She had never read the book, and I have never seen the movie. We began to describe the basic plot of each, trying to understand where exactly the two broke off and became completely separate stories. Ultimately, (though of course, the differences are more complex than just this) it seemed that the most obvious departure was the ending, the comparison of Audrey Hepburn's classic love story with a bittersweet ending of a girl who came out okay, who still hadn't and probably wouldn't ever have a moment of supreme clarity followed by a perfect fairy tale ending.
Capote's ending rang true for me because I felt that it captured the reality of human interaction, the way people move in and out of each others lives. But most importantly, the ending seemed in some way plausible. Not the fact that Holly ran off, dramatically escaping from jail to fly to Brazil, but the fact that she pulled through. She was tough, like her cat, and though at times she revealed just how fragile she really was (reading Jose's letter for example), she still struggled through overwhelming odds and lived her life the way she wanted. And that to me is more interesting and heartbreaking than lovers meeting in the rain.

If Holly Golighty is a “real phony,” it’s very hard to tell which parts of her are real and which are phony. Perhaps because “she believes all the crap she believes,” she seems as though she’s been the Holly of now forever. The past that creeps silently beside her inspires a mystery; how will she react when faced the history she refuses to acknowledge? Will it bring out her realness or phoniness? She appears destined to eternally evade the question until her ex-husband comes looking for her. Surprisingly, Holly does not run from the confrontation; like every other odd aspect of her life, she embraces him with warmth. In the revelation of her storied pre-New York life, she reveals that she is just as confused about herself as the readers: “…I keep telling him: But, Doc, I’m not fourteen anymore, and I’m not Lulamae. But the terrible part is (and I realized it while we were standing there) I am.” She proves to be a real phony, unaware that she’s pretending a part of her isn’t there. The one constant in Holly is her brother, Fred. The only part of her childhood she displays willingly in New York, he is foundational to her character. She calls the narrator Fred, showing that she has no intention of forgetting her brother as she forgot Lulamae. Ironically, the one part of her past that she wants back is the part that has no way of returning. She receives notice that Fred has died in the army, and then he appears to vanish from her life. She stops talking about him, stops calling the narrator Fred. But Fred isn’t the only thing that disappears, defining aspects of New York Holly slipped away as well: “Her hair darkened, she put on weight. She became rather careless about her clothes…She entertained no one and seldom left her apartment.” The fancy features of Holly Golightly only meant something when Lulamae could still hold onto Fred. Now that he is gone, Holly is forced to find what is phony and what is real in her life. The result is that “[she seems] more content, altogether happier than [the narrator has] ever seen her.” Whoever Holly has decided or discovered she is, she keeps to herself. Forever those around her wonder what she knows that they don’t.

Kamala's Post

Kamala Randjelovic
Posting for Monday, December 10th, 2007

As I read Truman Capote’s, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, I realized that the character Holly Golightly is representative of countless individuals who move to New York City in hopes of fulfilling their dreams. As I write this, there are people all over the world preparing to come to New York City to seek success in a myriad of ways. New York City is a beacon to many because it offers a unique freedom to its inhabitants. The physicality of the city; the small apartments combined with a vivid street life create an on going theatre which encourages, and allows its inhabitants to literally “cast” a role and act it out (if they so desire, and many do.) Due to its diversity of culture, New York also provides an illusion that one is constantly traveling –without departing the city. From one neighborhood to another – Chinatown to Little India in the East 20s for example, an individual can literally journey from China to India without leaving the city. In Breakfast At Tiffany’s, Holly can escape her past and create a new identity because she lives in New York City. Her sophisticated bearing (her looks and her diction) provide her entrée into the social circles of sophisticated and wealthy New Yorkers. At one point, “Fred” compares Holly to an old acquaintance of his; saying they both “….would never change because they had been given their character too soon, which like sudden riches lead to a lack of proportion” (55). Irregardless of the many people buzzing around her, Holly’s character is actually insatiable. Despite her many social connections, she remains empty –a person literally constructed in thin air. Without the backdrop of New York City, Holly would not exist. Her material gains; money, possessions and social connections do not connect her to others. It is the City that comforts Holly because it merely demands Holly’s presence. As Holly said; “I love New York, even though it isn’t mine, the way something has to be, a tree or a street or a house, something anyway, that belongs to me because I belong to it”(80). With New York City as her backdrop, Holly actually became someone.

Tiffany's cont.

The most interesting part of Capote's novella for me is the unpinnable character of Holly. She's both frustrating and irresistible. What makes her so intriguing is her seeming level of innocence. She appears to have no filter for how to view the world and it's at once refreshing and a little unnerving. She has a certain mischievousness that gives her the ability to manipulate (however unknowingly) those around her. She has such an incredible impact on her fellow characters (sally, narrator) and almost doesn't even seem to know it. This strange mischievous innocence is what makes her an irresistible character within Capote's story and American literature at large as you can't help but love what I can only think to characterize as her 'confident helplessness'.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: Holly as the Outsider concluded

After finishing Breakfast at Tiffany's my belief in its relation to The Great Gatsby was further concreted. Holly and Gatsby have many connections: their rise from lower class to a form of upper class status, their wild parties full of strange individuals, their confiding friend (for Gatsby it is Nick Carraway and for Holly it is the unnamed narrator). In the second half of the novella, I was introduced to another connection: an older man from Holly's past. The older man is Doc Golightly, "A person in his early fifties with a hard, weathered face, gray forlorn eyes" (Capote 61). Doc Golightly is Holly's possible husband (she was only fourteen when they married) and he is the only thing that connects her to her lower class past. For Gatsby, this man is his father Mr. Gatz. Mr. Gatz is old and decrepit, and he carries a last name and a few pieces of memorabilia that connect Gatsby to his past as the lower class Jay Gatz. Both of these old men have unconditional love for Holly and Gatsby respectively, but once Holly and Gatsby attain their upper class status they break themselves away from the people who truly care about them.

Breakfast at Tiffany's: Holly as the Outsider

Reading Breakfast at Tiffany's I kept getting flashes of The Great Gatsby. Obviously, these are two very different stories, and I don't believe in any way was Truman Capote trying to emulate F. Scott Fitzgerald, but the theme of the outsider definitely rings true. In Breakfast, Holly Golightly uses a manipulated persona--that of a hip, New York woman--to fit into this very economic society. Holly, who left her home in the South at the age of fourteen, totally changed her public-persona, even altering her accent, to fit into New York, high society. Jay Gatsby, of The Great Gatsby, has similar beginnings. He, also, leaves his home in the South at an early age, later connecting himself to a wealthy man and changing his name from Jay Gatz to Jay Gatsby. Gatsby moves to West Egg, a fictional area near New York City, and becomes a member of the nouveau riche. Both he and Holly enter into these worlds as outsiders, where they make roles for themselves by altering their previously existing personalities.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

Holly is an interesting character in the book. She's tough, elegant, kind and crooked. She's flamboyant, yet is troubled by such surroundings at times.
To relate to to general theme of the class, she's an outsider of NYC, and here she is experiencing what cannot be described. I've lived in New York all my life, and as we read along I can get input into the heads of those whom surround me. Many fellow students aren't from New York and are having a difficult time situating themselves here. Holly seems to be fitting in just fine, from the outer looks of it, though she's a little torn I feel.
Someone wrote in a previous Blog that New York doesn't really have any outsiders, because outsiders is what makes New York, New York. And I thought that to be so true. Its such a great way to see it.

Breakfast At Tiffany's

The character of Holly Golightly seemed to be very relatable to the narrator in Joan Didion's "Goodbye to All of That". Both stories had a sense of living in the city, but always with the sense of escaping it eventually. The narrator in Breakfast at Tiffany's descirbed Holly's living space of having the feeling of being just moved into, and appearing as if she could be moving out any any time. Joan Didion decribed the type of New Yorker who has moved from there another part of the country, and never has that full feeling of calling New York City "home". Holly appears to have the same feeling, due to the fact that she is always readin about new places to travel to, and never truly finds comfort in her living space, or anyone else's. As well as Didion's charater falling into the same routine of social gatherings and seeing the same people all of the time, and feeling the false friendships she has made during her time in the city, the Capote's characters appear to be in a similar position. A perfect scene of these shallow social circles is the coctail part Holly throws in her apartment. Every guest is random and no one really knows each other and is slightly uncomfortable, but they are all there with a sense of belonging since they can all relate to each other on that level.

Only in the City

An aspect of Breakfast at Tiffany’s that may be overlooked by the reader is the importance of urban space in the advancement of the plot. The story is made possible only by the fact that Holly lives in the same building as the bartender Joe and the narrator, and the plot is constantly advanced through this proximity of quarters that exists solely in urban environments. Had the characters not shared a building, Holly would have never escaped to the narrators room via fire escape (which began their relationship), the narrator would have never received the bartender’s call about the photographs, and would not have been inspired to write the story of Holly Golightly. It is certain that setting always dictates a great deal of a plot, but only in the city are so many strangers so able to become “authorities” on one another’s lives as in Capote's novella.

I feel that New York is a city of transience. People are constantly moving here from other places and also constantly moving away. A person is capable of escaping their past when moving to this city (or any new place, of course). A person can also escape the present while still living here if they desire to do so. It’s a big city and there are so many people you can walk ten blocks or take a subway and become someone new or live a new life. The use of a pseudonym and an undefined past represents the state of escape and transience Holly exists in. She is searching for freedom by having the least amount of ties or stability in one sense, and in doing so she is committed to a certain type of existence, which is full of contradicting values and desires that may be just as constraining as any ‘traditional’ life, or the life she is trying to be free of.

Holly

I had never read Breakfast at Tiffany's before, and I was completely captivated by the character of Holly Golightly. On one hand, she leads this tawdry, almost enviably glamorous life where she is admired by many men, never works, is escorted by millionaires, appears completely independent, and dresses elegantly. On the other hand, she lives in a small apartment and is sometimes trapped by the very extravagance of the life that she lives. She has a very difficult past, she is poor, and she has to put up with these men who are, in some ways, her living.
Holly's personality is only emphasized by New York City. She embodies the many sides of the city, being an outsider, but one who has adapted to fit in, as much at place as any native. She is beautiful but tough, kind but crooked. She is a study in contradiction, but at the end of the day there is this elusive, ephemeral quality of one who can never be caught, the quality that we love about the moving, changing city, that we also love about her.

Holly Golightly

I think that Holly Golightly represents a piece of everyone who moves to New York city. The fact that she feels lost and is trying to find her own way, truly shows an experience that everyone can relate to. Some critics say that Holly Golightly is Truman Capote's alter-ego, but I can argue the same for anyone. People make all sorts of judgments on her, no one really knows her past or where she is from, and her career as a "powder-room girl" is left ambiguous for the reader to make their own personal assumptions about her. People go to New York to find themselves, leave the old behind and completely reinvent themselves. Holly uses the metaphor of Tiffany's to demonstrate how she still hasn't found her place in the world, or herself for that matter. Tiffany's represents stability, being grounded, and supplies a desired identity for Holly. She uses it as an escape from her confused life style, a future endeavor that she would like to embrace. Holly feels attached to nothing or no one. By not even giving the cat a name, she feels no possession over anything. I can say that it has taken me months to finally feel like I belong in Manhattan. It has been a turbulent adjustment, even to find a sense of self amongst millions. If only I could have my Breakfast at Tiffany's and eat it too.

b AT t's and some memories

New York has produced in me a quality that wants, no needs, to reach out and grab hold of every moment of sincere human interaction. Capote's Breakast at Tiffany's reminds me of the outrageous lengths we go to to protect our private selves, yet we are all under the endless scrutiny of those around us whether we like it or not. And in a city that has a habit of passive-aggressive observation (just ride the subway for a lesson in this) it has become more and more important for me to assert a strong sense of who I am an where I'm going. New York won't be able to write me down in its book of the aloof.

Breakfast at Tiffany's

I've found it's always interesting to read a book you've read before but at a different point in your life. When I was younger I read "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and I didn't really think about the experiences people go through when they come to New York with their various backgrounds, like how Holly does in the book. I also never thought about looking at this city through the perspective of an outsider because I've always lived here. Reading this book now for this course with so many people new to this city has showed me how truly different the city is to everyone here, and how there's really no such thing as an outsider. The collective irony is that many of the people living in New York aren't from here, yet this city is defined by their being in it.

for 03 december 07

The aspect of why people live in New York City is probably the most interesting thing in the writing from Baudrillard. I love the statement, "There is no human reason to be here, except for the sheer ecstasy of being crowded together." It is just as appalling as the statement in the film "shortbus" that say that young people only come to New York is because of 9/11; so that they can feel alive. I refuse to believe that New York is filled with a life of people that have no sole purpose to be here except to feel the crowded nature of a city. I can swear to you now that the youth in this city did not move from thousands of miles away to feel crowded. People come for many things, the simple opportunities, the wind through tall buildings that some have never felt before, the snow in central park that many have never touched or felt or seen. The labels that have been instilled to many for as long as they can remember, can be disintegrated with the face paced life of being anonymous in the city that doesn't do napping. The "magical sensation" that Baudrillard talks about is not from the feeling of living around so much, it's from living around everything you could ever want, the problem for some is just grasping at the dream that lives outside their door.

Kamala's Post 12-3-07

Kamala Randjelovic
Post for Monday, December 3rd, 2007

In Truman Capote’s, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, we are introduced to Holly Golightly by “Fred”, who recounts that he became an authority on her existence by the mere act of “…observing the trash basket outsider her door”. Holly comes alive through Fred’s musings; her “… regular reading consisted of tabloids and travel folders and astrological charts; that she smoked an esoteric cigarette called Picayune's; survived on cottage cheese and Melba toast”(15). In this story, Capote perfectly illustrates the curious intimacy –and disengagement- between strangers which easily occurs in a city like New York. Perhaps the story is truly about Fred’s desire, and fantasy for Holly and his loneliness. Although New Yorkers live in close quarters, neighbors are privy to the most basic aspects of life. In observing the minutiae of their neighbor’s daily activities, they begin to think they know them –when in actuality they don’t –perhaps the core point of Capote’s story. When Capote describes Holly Golightly as “…such a goddamn liar, maybe she don’t know herself anymore” (30), he illustrates the illusion of her life and the potential for New Yorkers to live a life of illusion. The constant motion of Holly Golightly’s life and how she remains unknown to everyone illustrates Capote’s cynical take on life in New York. As Holly Golightly flits in and out of people’s lives, she charges in and demands that people pay attention, but only for a moment. When she leaves, it as if she wasn’t there to begin with and therefore a palpable loneliness permeates the story. Interestingly, the movie version of Breakfast at Tiffany’s glamorized the story and bypassed the loneliness of the book. On screen, it was more magical and accepted as a fantasy. New York City is essentially a small world comprised of many neighborhoods. Capote succinctly describes how its streets provide gateways for people to “run into each other” and yet also keep fantasy alive. Fred becomes a poignant character in the story when he notes that he’s “…been walking in the streets going on ten or twelve years, and all those years he’s got his eye out for one person, and nobody’s ever her”(9).

In the novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s by Truman Capote, characters drop in with their quirks quite evident but their backgrounds a mystery. The most important example has to be Holly Golightly herself, a whiplash of eccentricity and intrigue. To get to know who she is and who she was, the reader must pick up bits of information here and there, much like the narrator uses the contents of her garbage to gather some idea of her life. What is clear is that Holly is very interested in other people, an extremely social person, but does not wish to share her full story with anyone. She let loose facts with explanation, the present without the past. She’ll tell you about her brother named Fred, her visits to Sing-Sing, her love for Tiffany’s, but ask for information she doesn’t offer and she closes off. “Like many people for volunteering intimate information, anything that suggested a direct question, a pinning down, put her on guard,” narrator Fred observes. Her behavior seems typical of one who is determined to define herself on her own terms, someone who has chosen a new direction. This attitude isn’t unique to Holly; in fact, New York City seems to be the place for it. People seem to come here to be new or different in some way, and leave the parts of them behind that conflict with the New York person. It’s almost no surprise when we learn that Holly ran away to the city as a young child. What she ran from is still unknown, however perhaps her New York self reveals something about it. She is Holly Golightly, Traveling; she misses her brother, Fred, and fantasizes about Tiffany’s; she escorts older, wealthy men and befriends poor, struggling writers. Something must give her away eventually, but it won’t be Holly herself. She has fully committed to the Holly of the city. As O.J. Berman said about her, “She isn’t a phony because she’s a real phony. She believes all this crap she believes. You can’t talk her out of it.”