Breakfast at Tiffany's Section 8: Difference between revisions
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Section eight of Truman Capote's "BreakfastAt Tiffany's" begins with the title to a shocking newspaper clipping. It reads, "Trawler marries fourth."(74) The narrator reads this clip while riding the subway home from an unsuccessful job interwiew. He immidiately assumes that Rusty Trawler, a playboy that the narrator has come to loath, has taken Holly to be his fourth wife. His first wish after reading this portion of the article is to be underneath the wheels of the train. He justifies his wish by explaining the recent comings and goings in his life. His "mean reds", as he puts it, come from many places at once. First of all, he admits that he has been recently fired from his job. The details of his dissmissal are " too complicated to recount."(75) Secondly, he has reason to believe that his his draft board is persuing him in an effort to get him to join the military. He said, " The idea of entering another form of disciplined life made me desperate."(75) This causes his frustration to multiply because he can not seem to find a job. In fact his unfruitful interview with the ''PM'', a newspaper now closed down, is what he is returning from at the beginning of this section. Most obviously, he believes that Holly has married a man that he completely detests. His mounting jealousy causes him to admit that he does, in fact, love Holly. He also notes that his love for Holly is an identical love that he has experienced with an elderly colored cook and an entire family, probably friends, that he knew when he was younger. Upon reaching the station, he breaks down to his curiosity and buys a paper in order to read the entire article. Much to his surprise, Rusty did not marry Holly! He married Holly's room mate Mag Wildwood. His excitement that Holly is not married to Rusty causes his legs to shake so badly that he must ride a cab home instead of walking. | |||
The surprises seem to keep coming for the narrator when he finally reaches his apartment building. Madame Spanella is screaming in fear for the police to come. The narrator also notes quite a din comming from a higher floor. Madame Spanella raves, " She is killing somebody! Somebody is killing her!"(76) Instead of going for help the narrator bounds up the steps to the source of the noises which is, of course, Holly's door. After pounding the door with a fist, the noises subside, but no matter how many times he calls, Holly will not come to the door. He futilly throws himself at the door, trying to break in, until Jose Ybarra-Jager, Mag Wildwood's ex-fiance, arrives on the scene followed by a doctor. The narrator crossly notes that Jose opens the door to the apartment with his own key. Following the other two men inside, the narrator finds the apartment in disarray, the cat lapping up milk from the floor( the milk was spilled in the fray), and Holly standing, rigid on the bed. She is muttering an incoherrent description of her brother, Fred. The doctor quickly begins to vocally sooth Holly as well as injecting her with a sedative. Jose continues asking the doctor(in bad English) if "Her only sickness is grief?"(78) Annoyed with Jose's questions, he forcefully ejects the other two men from the room. Jose, in anger, chases the snooping Madame Spanella out of the room, and he almost repeats this action with the narrator. In the end though, Jose invites the narrator to sit with him and have drink which happens to be the only bottle that survived Holly's rampage. Through conversation, the narrator learns that all Jose is worried about is how people might think that he caused Holly to have such a terrible fit. Jose is a politician, and he is afraid of being defaced. Later, Jose finds a telegram on the floor that explains Holly's tantrum. The telegram is a message from Doc, Holly's husband, sent to inform Holly of her brother's death in the war. | |||
After that day, Holly seems to hybernate to the narrator. She ceases to talk about her brother(a once common occourance). She also stops calling the narrator Fred. He observes that Holly's hair gets darker and she puts on a lot of weight. On a positive note, Holly becomes quite a home maker. She purchases many classy items to decorate her apartment such as: tapestries, Gothic arm chairs, and several other ambiance producing items. Furthermore, the purchase of cookbooks led to Holly becoming a very good cook. Oddly enough though, she could only cook delecacies. When she tries to scramble eggs, she simply burns them. | |||
Jose, being a diplomat, works in Washington D.C. three days out of the week. While he is gone the narrator and Holly meet to go on walks or to go out to dinner. During a conversation, the narrator learns that Holly is six weeks pregnant. She then rambles on about how she wants to have nine children with Jose, and ceraselessly talks about how much she looks forward to moving with Jose to Rio. In fact the only regret that Holly mentions is that she wishes that she could have been a virgin for Jose. She insists that she is in love with Jose, but she seems to find a fault in every habit that Jose has. She even says that Jose is not her idea of a perfect man. "If I were free to,..." Holly continues, " I would not pick Jose."(82) The narrator, after hearing so much about Jose(more than he would like),begins to dislike Jose very much. He even stops saying Jose's name while he is speaking to Holly and simply refers to Jose as " Him." Holly moves to a different subject and talks about giving up her horoscopes. She believes that this is an example of a good deed. She thinks that " good things happen t0 those that are good."(83) Later, on an outing, Holly observes ships sailing by and exclaims," one day, one of those ships would bring me(Holly) back, me and my nine Brazillion brats."(84) The narrator, tired of hearing about her "brats" and Jose , says " Do shut up."(85) H e clearly felt left out;" like a tug boat in drydock while she(Holly), glittery voyager of secure destination, steamed down the harbor with whistles whistling and confetti in the air."(85) | |||
Revision as of 23:16, 18 March 2006
Summary
Section eight of Truman Capote's "BreakfastAt Tiffany's" begins with the title to a shocking newspaper clipping. It reads, "Trawler marries fourth."(74) The narrator reads this clip while riding the subway home from an unsuccessful job interwiew. He immidiately assumes that Rusty Trawler, a playboy that the narrator has come to loath, has taken Holly to be his fourth wife. His first wish after reading this portion of the article is to be underneath the wheels of the train. He justifies his wish by explaining the recent comings and goings in his life. His "mean reds", as he puts it, come from many places at once. First of all, he admits that he has been recently fired from his job. The details of his dissmissal are " too complicated to recount."(75) Secondly, he has reason to believe that his his draft board is persuing him in an effort to get him to join the military. He said, " The idea of entering another form of disciplined life made me desperate."(75) This causes his frustration to multiply because he can not seem to find a job. In fact his unfruitful interview with the PM, a newspaper now closed down, is what he is returning from at the beginning of this section. Most obviously, he believes that Holly has married a man that he completely detests. His mounting jealousy causes him to admit that he does, in fact, love Holly. He also notes that his love for Holly is an identical love that he has experienced with an elderly colored cook and an entire family, probably friends, that he knew when he was younger. Upon reaching the station, he breaks down to his curiosity and buys a paper in order to read the entire article. Much to his surprise, Rusty did not marry Holly! He married Holly's room mate Mag Wildwood. His excitement that Holly is not married to Rusty causes his legs to shake so badly that he must ride a cab home instead of walking. The surprises seem to keep coming for the narrator when he finally reaches his apartment building. Madame Spanella is screaming in fear for the police to come. The narrator also notes quite a din comming from a higher floor. Madame Spanella raves, " She is killing somebody! Somebody is killing her!"(76) Instead of going for help the narrator bounds up the steps to the source of the noises which is, of course, Holly's door. After pounding the door with a fist, the noises subside, but no matter how many times he calls, Holly will not come to the door. He futilly throws himself at the door, trying to break in, until Jose Ybarra-Jager, Mag Wildwood's ex-fiance, arrives on the scene followed by a doctor. The narrator crossly notes that Jose opens the door to the apartment with his own key. Following the other two men inside, the narrator finds the apartment in disarray, the cat lapping up milk from the floor( the milk was spilled in the fray), and Holly standing, rigid on the bed. She is muttering an incoherrent description of her brother, Fred. The doctor quickly begins to vocally sooth Holly as well as injecting her with a sedative. Jose continues asking the doctor(in bad English) if "Her only sickness is grief?"(78) Annoyed with Jose's questions, he forcefully ejects the other two men from the room. Jose, in anger, chases the snooping Madame Spanella out of the room, and he almost repeats this action with the narrator. In the end though, Jose invites the narrator to sit with him and have drink which happens to be the only bottle that survived Holly's rampage. Through conversation, the narrator learns that all Jose is worried about is how people might think that he caused Holly to have such a terrible fit. Jose is a politician, and he is afraid of being defaced. Later, Jose finds a telegram on the floor that explains Holly's tantrum. The telegram is a message from Doc, Holly's husband, sent to inform Holly of her brother's death in the war. After that day, Holly seems to hybernate to the narrator. She ceases to talk about her brother(a once common occourance). She also stops calling the narrator Fred. He observes that Holly's hair gets darker and she puts on a lot of weight. On a positive note, Holly becomes quite a home maker. She purchases many classy items to decorate her apartment such as: tapestries, Gothic arm chairs, and several other ambiance producing items. Furthermore, the purchase of cookbooks led to Holly becoming a very good cook. Oddly enough though, she could only cook delecacies. When she tries to scramble eggs, she simply burns them. Jose, being a diplomat, works in Washington D.C. three days out of the week. While he is gone the narrator and Holly meet to go on walks or to go out to dinner. During a conversation, the narrator learns that Holly is six weeks pregnant. She then rambles on about how she wants to have nine children with Jose, and ceraselessly talks about how much she looks forward to moving with Jose to Rio. In fact the only regret that Holly mentions is that she wishes that she could have been a virgin for Jose. She insists that she is in love with Jose, but she seems to find a fault in every habit that Jose has. She even says that Jose is not her idea of a perfect man. "If I were free to,..." Holly continues, " I would not pick Jose."(82) The narrator, after hearing so much about Jose(more than he would like),begins to dislike Jose very much. He even stops saying Jose's name while he is speaking to Holly and simply refers to Jose as " Him." Holly moves to a different subject and talks about giving up her horoscopes. She believes that this is an example of a good deed. She thinks that " good things happen t0 those that are good."(83) Later, on an outing, Holly observes ships sailing by and exclaims," one day, one of those ships would bring me(Holly) back, me and my nine Brazillion brats."(84) The narrator, tired of hearing about her "brats" and Jose , says " Do shut up."(85) H e clearly felt left out;" like a tug boat in drydock while she(Holly), glittery voyager of secure destination, steamed down the harbor with whistles whistling and confetti in the air."(85)
Notes
- "The now defunct newspaper, PM" (75) - A left-wing daily newspaper in New York City, PM stood for "Picture Magazine," since it borrowed so many pictures from other newsmagazines. The newspaper began in 1940 and was published until 1948 when it was replaced by the New York Star.
- "A Parke-Bernet Auction" (80) - Parke-Bernet is the United States's largest fine-arts auctioneer, purchased by Sotheby's in 1964.
- William Randolph Hearst (80) - An American newspaper magnate who invented "yellow journalism" and waas a leader of the liberal wing of the Democratic party from 1896 to 1935.
- Modern Library (80) - A division of Randolph House Publishers. Founded in 1917, it identified itself as "The Modern Library of the World's Best Books."
- Metropolitan Museum (80) - One of the world's largest and most important art museums, located in Manhattan, New York.
- Waring mixer (80) - Waring is a leading manufacturer of small appliances for the home, food service, and laboratory industries.
- Hausfrau (80) - Translated from German to English, "housewife."
- Outré (81) - Highly unconventional; eccentric or bizarre.
- Terrapin (81) - An amphibious reptile turtle that can live in the water and on land.
- "Nero-ish novelties" (81) - Nero was the fifth and last emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty of Rome.
- Pomegranates and persimmons (81) - The Pomegranate, or Punica granatum, is a species of fruit-bearing deciduous shrub or small tree. Holly uses the fruit in her roasted pheasant. The persimmon, meaning "dry fruit," is an edible fruit borne by some species of the genus Diospyros.
- Linguaphone records (81) - Founded in 1901, Linguaphone is a company that helps people learn foreign languages, especially through self-learning courses.
- Nehru (82) - An important leader of the Indian Independence Movement and the Indian National Congress. Nehru became the first Prime Minister of India when the country won its independence on August 15, 1947.
- Wendell Willkie (83) - A lawyer and the Republican nominee in the 1940 presidential election against Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- Garbo (83) - Greta Garbo was a Swedish actress who was highly successful in silent films, as well as in those with sound.
- Fado (83) - A music genre believed to have originated in Portugal in the 1820s. The genre is characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor.