Breakfast at Tiffany's Section 8: Difference between revisions

Section eight of Truman Capote's "Breakfast At 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 draft board is persuing him in an effort to get him to join the military. He says, "The idea of entering another form of disciplined life made me desperate" (75). This causes his frustration to multiply because he cannot 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.  

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).

The main turning point, it seems, in Holly's rebellious ways is the death of her brother, Fred. Fred represented her willingness to run up to this point in the novella. His death, like the death of Holly's freedom, is violent and sudden as Jose converts her into a house wife. Furthermore, Holly mourns her brother's death as much as she seems to subconsiously pine for her old ways of travel. In her conversations with the narrator, she seems unresolved with the idea of spending the rest of her life with Jose. Yes, she wishes to spend time with him, but she finds so many faults in him. She even tells the narrator that she would not choose to be with Jose if she had the ability to go back in time. Obviously she is trying to convince herself that she ''is'' in love with Jose because now she is pregnant. She continues to repeat over and over again that she loves him. She does admit, though, that Jose is her first "non-rat" lover in her life. This is an easy statement to believe, as most early referances to Holly's love life make strong referances to prostitution. Taking men to the powder room and coming out with money, for example. She labels all of her past lovers "rats", but she forces herself to see an allure in them. "She feels that she has to if she is going to continue to make a living out of it (prostitution). And not only that, but she hopes to secure her financial future just as easily."(Cash)

  Regardless of her true intentions, this section ends with the narrator giving a wonderful metaphore." So the days, the last days, blow about in memory...all alike as leaves..."(84-85). The narrator's final days with Holly are described as falling leaves before winter. One has seen leaves before, but they all seem the same. Rarely does any one leaf stand out in memory. One can only remember falling leaves look like. The narrator feels the same way about his final days with Holly. He can tell little difference between them, and he spent most of the time with her worrying about the time that she would be away from him. Also like falling leaves, these memories seemed to blow away, unable to be caught to hold on to as a keepsake.