63
edits
Breakfast at Tiffany's Section 12: Difference between revisions
→Commentary
| Line 14: | Line 14: | ||
==Commentary== | ==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://www.bfi.org.uk/features/galleries/audrey/images/bfi-00m-del.jpg | |||
==Study Questions== | ==Study Questions== | ||