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.