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.