A look inside of“Breakfast at Tiffany’s” by Truman Capote
Going into this piece, I had no idea what to expect. I had seen a few images of Audrey Hepburn as Miss Holiday “Holly” Golightly, dressed in an elegant black dress accessorized with gloves, gaudy jewelry and the ever-iconic black cigarette holder.
I assumed, as anyone who knew of Hepburn’s reputation for elegance and had never actually seen the film would, that Golightly would be the picture of feminine perfection, an unending symbol of elegance and grace. My expectations were wholly subverted – Golightly, though undeniably classy, is far from elegant and graceful.
That is what “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” is about: the enigma of Golightly and the main character’s relationship to her. Given Capote’s track record, it is not unlikely that she is a character who is based on a real person.
Given his track record with new journalism and creative nonfiction, I am not quite sure which of Capote’s plot points, if any, occurred. However, it is probably not far off to assume that the relationship between the main character and Miss Golightly was based on a relationship he actually had with a strange, charming, morally ambiguous young woman.
It is funny to see an enigma of a writer describe an enigma of a person. Holly Golightly is at once charming and reprehensible, unlikable yet pleasing. It is not difficult for the reader to imagine themselves as both her and the main character that gazes upon her in all her glory, and it is even less difficult to fall in love with her the way most other characters in the story do.
It is rare to find a character who is so deep and so layered with contradicting and corresponding traits that I struggle to think of another one at the top of my head. One character to come to mind is “The Hunger Games’” Katniss Everdeen.
Yes, these two may be the furthest from each other that a spectrum of personality can allow, partly because of the vast difference in genre, but I think they function similarly in both their stories for how devastatingly real they feel.
They both suffer from trauma that manifests itself in different ways, but both results feel like people that I, at least, have encountered in real life.
Where novels have time to focus on and flesh out other characters, as well (Finnick, Prim, Haymitch, etc.), “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” only has time for one. Nevertheless, the writing and characterization is efficient and reverent.
There is not a point in the story that I ever felt as though the emphasis was unfounded, or the detail was unnecessary. The result is a story I think could scarcely be improved if it is not already perfect. While your personal opinion on Golightly may vary (as I believe it is meant to), she will inevitably display vulnerable reflection, even briefly, in a way that can touch almost anyone, even the strictest of moralists.
As Holly, ever the escort, turncoat and fraud, says “Everybody has to feel superior to somebody . . . but it’s customary to present a little proof before you take the privilege.”
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