Breakfast at Tiffany's Section 12

Summary

The narrator is sent to Holly's apartment to gather up some of her things, and the cat. He took them to Joe Bell's, where Holly was waiting for him. They then leave in a limousine and head to the airport. On the way there, Holly drops the cat off on a street block, and leaves him there. A block down the road she realizes that she wants the cat back and runs back there to look for him. She could not find him, so the narrator promises her that he will find and take care of the cat. She gets back in the limo and leaves for the airport, to go to Rio. At that point, she realizes that she and the cat were the same. They were both wild and did not want to be caged, but she believes that they belong to each other and is sorry that she no longer has the cat with her.

Notes

bon voyage (106)- French, literally translated as "good journey".

oompahpah (106)- A rhythmic bass accompaniment, that repeats.

rhapsodic (106)- Emotional, extravagant music.

Spanish Harlem(107)- Also known as East Harlem or El Barrio, a neighborhood in northeastern part of the borough of Manhattan, one of the largest predominantly Hispanic communities in New York City. Since the 1950s, it has been populated by a large number of people of Puerto Rican descent, sometimes called Nuyoricans. In recent years the neighborhood has also become home to many Mexican American immigrants.

Nancy's Landing (105)- Fictional town created by Capote. "Nancy's Landing," serves as Capote's code phrase for a gay resort, a make-believe, southern Fire Island or Provincetown. Thus, the narrator's coy rejoinder that the reader should "[n]ever mind why" he made the trip appears as a subtle move to direct attention away from his self-confession.

Commentary

One of the underlying themes presented in this section is a heightened awareness of homosexuality of the narrator and Joe Bell. The first example is the narrator's reference to Nancy's Landing in comparison to his trip to Joe Bell's bar:

"Never mind why, but once I walked from New Orleans to Nancy's Landing, Mississippi, just under five hundred miles. It was a light-hearted lark compared to the journey to Joe Bell's bar" (105).

Nancy's Landing is a fictional place, a gay resort invented by Capote. The fact that he doesn't give a reason for the journey suggest that he intends to put the idea out there, without revealing too much about himself.

Joe Bell's homosexuality is apparant in the list of his passions, which include hockey, soap operas, and flower arranging. He also appreciates horses and baseball. His interest are a bit confusing, but shows that people cannot be stereotyped. All the characteristics suggest that he is gay, but the idea of horses and baseball as a key to heterosexuality presents cofusion to the reader.

"Our Gal Sunday (a soap serial he had listened to for fifteen years), and Gilbert and Sullivan," both of which indicate less stereotypically masculine aspects to his character. Capote develops the reference to Gilbert and Sullivan further, noting that "[Bell] claims to be related to one or the other, I can't remember which" (4). Since Sullivan is rumored to have been a homosexual because of the many coded references to sexual partners in his diaries, the passage slyly hints that the bartender is part of Sullivan's "family," a fellow gay man to his beloved composer." (Pugh)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1145000/images/_1148706_hepb_300.jpg

Study Questions

• What were the five items that Holly requested from her apartment?
• What did the narrator use to transport the cat?
• What was Holly transported to the airport in, and who arranged it?
• Where was the cat abandoned?

Works Cited

Pugh, Tison.Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's. Explicator (Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation, Washington, DC) (61:1) [Fall 2002] , p.51-53

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