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.”