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.