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Breakfast at Tiffany's Section 12: Difference between revisions
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==Commentary== | ==Commentary== | ||
Friday night, the day before departure, is described as ‘red,’ perhaps a parallel to the mean reds Holly must be feeling in anticipation of her journey to Brazil. Saturday itself, however, was under such a heavy rain it was questionable that a plane could take off. It is a fine forecast and foreshadowing of her grief to follow in this chapter. | |||
Holly, against the wishes of the narrator and Joe Bell, continued to make her plans to leave. After being discharged from the hospital, she promptly went to a bank and then to Joe Bell’s bar. Bell himself delivered Holly’s message to the narrator, requesting that he gather the majority of her things (her jewelry, guitar, toothbrushes and stuff, bottle of hundred-year-old brandy, and the cat) from her apartment since it was under surveillance by police, reporters, and/or other interested parties, suggesting that perhaps they could be linked to Tomato. | |||
On the way to Bell’s from the brownstone, the narrator reminisces about a time he walked nearly 500 miles from New Orleans to Nancy’s Landing, Mississippi, referencing it as a “light-hearted lark compared to the journey to Joe Bell’s bar” (p.105). We understand that the walk from the brownstone to the bar would be stressful; partly because the paper sacks he carried were falling apart and items were falling to the ground, but also because he feared being caught aiding an ‘outlaw.’ Comparing Nancy’s Landing to such a trying time suggests there is more to be known regarding the nature of his trip. Per The Explicator, “According to A Dictionary of the Underworld, "Nancy" refers either to the posterior or to "an effeminate man, especially a passive homosexual." "Nancy's Landing," then serves as Capote's code phrase for a gay resort...” The narrator’s lack of explanation for his journey is strongly suggestive of his homosexuality which plays into one of the underlying themes of BaT. | |||
Though vehemently refusing to drink the hundred-year-old brandy with the narrator and Holly, Bell did call for a limousine to take Holly to the airport. Holly had the chauffer stop on a curb in Spanish Harlem where she stepped out of the limousine with the cat. She commences to have a one way conversation with the cat, seemingly trying to convince herself more than anyone, that this was the right place for him. She dropped him to the ground, and even after yelling and stomping her foot, he merely looked at her and rubbed against her leg. She jumped into the limousine only to go a block, and at a traffic light opened the door and ran back to attempt to find him. She realizes that they did belong to one another. Although Holly holds contempt for cages, the relationship with her cat is "symbolic of Holly's divided beliefs... (p.86, Garson)" She realizes that they did belong to one another, and illustrates how she longs to settle down and have a home. There is also a touch of irony in this situation; according to Garson her reason for ridding herself and the treatment of the cat "parallel Jose's treatment of Holly" (p86). | |||
Unable to find the lost cat, the narrator promises Holly that he will find the cat and take care of him. She is not comforted by this, she instead “confesses her most private, deep-seated fear of what her life will always be: “Not knowing what’s yours until you’ve thrown it away. (p 86, Garson)” | |||
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: | 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: | ||