Breakfast at Tiffany's Section 5: Difference between revisions

The protagonist begins working a nine to five job and, as a result, sees less of Holly Golightly (the image of Holly Golightly played by Audrey Hepburn in Hollywood's version of Breakfast at Tiffany's[http://images.forbes.com/images/2001/10/10/pow_400x475.jpg]). One day, he sees Holly walking into a library and lets his curiosity get the best of him.  He observes her without her knowledge, and when she leaves he examines the books on her table. He discovers that she is reading up on Brazil.  Watching her read, the narrator compares her to a girl he knew in school, Mildred Grossman.  Although they were totally opposite fromm each other, the protagonist compares them to Siamese twins. The very thing that makes them so alike is that they are so different from anyone the narrator has ever met, and that "they would never change because they'd been given their character too soon" (58). One is intraverted and practical; the other is extraverted and impractical.

*'''Rockefeller Plaza''' (59) - A place where people gathered to celebrate the biggest, brightest Christmas tree of all.  Celebrated since [http://wnbc.com/christmastree/1775354/detail.html=1933 1933]. Veiw the Rockefeller Plaza[[Image:[http://mijnposter.nl/thumbs/487/011s.jpeg]]]http://www.ccfagreetingcards.com/_images/HG_Rockefeller_Center_Christmas_Tree.jpg.

*'''"Wuthering Heights"''' - a novel published in 1847 by Emily Bronte.  [http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/wuthering/context.html Heights] did not become popular until later, but is now regarded as a masterpeice.

Self-deception is not one of Holly's failings, although she is an extraordinary liar. It doesn't trouble her to beguile others when it suits her purpose. She constructs a world around her to make things as pleasant as she can, inventing stories when the truth is too painful to discuss. Berman, who calls Holly a "phony", modifies it to "a ''real'' phony," because, he claims, "she believes all this crap she believes." The narrator doesn't think of Holly that way (Garson 82).

Since her moral code differs from that of society, Holly has no qualms about lying. To protect herself or to keep people from getting too close, or from knowing too much about her, she fabricates. She fictionalizes when reality is grim and threatens to bring on the "blues" (sadness), or the "mean reds" (fear/angst). Unwilling to share her memories of her early life. Holly invents a beautiful fantasy childhood for herself when the narrator tells her of his own unhappy boyhood.

Holly also lies when a situation is not to her liking. At the first party, when an acquaintance, Mag Wildwood, barges in and draws the attention of all the men, Holly retaliates by insinuating that Mag has a terrible disease. Another time, to keep Mag from learning that she has slept with Mag's lover, Jose, Holly breezily pretends she is a lesbian, partly to deceive Mag and partly for the humor of the deception (Garson 82, 83).

Holly's moral code and the fact that she is a real phony are exemplified in this section when she goes to the library and reads through books about Brazil and South America.  Holly is trying to morph herself into a person from South America and this is our first clue that Holly is planning on going back to Brazil with Jose (whether Jose knows this or not is not presented to us).  I believe this is what O.J. means by a "real phony".  She is definitely not from Brazil, or even South America, but by the time she makes it there, she will be able to act like she has lived there all her life, as shown to us by the way she could change from a farm-raised girl to a Hollywood actress to a New York [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freeloader freeloader].

*Garson, Helen S. "[http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=maco12153&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=30&ste=16&stab=512&tab=2&tbst=arp&ai=15706&n=10&docNum=H1420065645&ST=Truman+Capote&bConts=16047 Truman Capote:A Study on Short Fiction]".New York: Ungar, 1980.