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Breakfast at Tiffany's: Difference between revisions
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==Characters== | ==Characters== | ||
===Paul/Narrator=== | ===Paul/Narrator=== | ||
An aspiring writer who lives above Holly in his New York apartment. He becomes friends with Holly and Joe Bell and he later falls in love with Holly. He seems to be a passive man. | An aspiring writer who lives above Holly in his New York apartment. He is affectionately referred to as "Fred" by Holly until her brother dies. He enjoys drinking bourbon and reading Simenon. He becomes friends with Holly and Joe Bell and he later falls in love with Holly. He seems to be a passive man, and is suspected of being homosexual due to the lack of sexual nature of his and Holly's relationship. | ||
===Holly Golightly=== | ===Holly Golightly=== | ||
True name is Lulamae Barnes. At age 14 she married Doc Golightly near Tulip, Texas. Her parents both passed away from TB, and she was sent to stay with some ‘mean people’ approximately 100 miles east of Tulip. She and her brother, Fred, ran away and would steal in order to eat. After being caught stealing by one of Doc’s daughters, he fell in love with her and asked her to marry him. Though she ran away from him at age 14, she feels she owes a lot to Doc because he gave her confidence in herself. Discovered in California by O.J. Berman, she was given French lessons to rid her of her country accent, and modeled after Margaret Sullavan. Later she posed as niece to Sally Tomato in exchange for money to deliver ‘weather reports’ from Sing Sing to his lawyer. | |||
Just shy of being 19 at the beginning of the story, Holly is described physically as ageless, having short, boy styled hair with a hodgepodge of colors including white blonde and yellow streaks(self colored), and being thin but a clean and healthy look about her. Her cheeks are pink and she has very large mouth and warm, blue, green, and brown eyes, which she hides behind large, prescription sunglasses at all hours. Her nose is turned up at the end, like a pixie. She is always well groomed, with a tendency to dress in good taste, but plainly, in grays and blues which seems to make her shine even more. | |||
Holly believes strongly in being free to roam where ever her whim should take her. Although she resides in apartment 2 of the brownstone, she seems to not have a home. Her inability to keep up with her apartment key, her nameless cat, and the sparse furnishings in her apartment illustrate well her lack of commitment to one place or thing. Even her mail box card is non-committing : Miss Holiday Golightly, Traveling. Although she seems so free spirited, later in the novella we find that she desperately does want to find a place to call her own; a place that makes her feel secure as Tiffany’s does. | |||
Holly smokes Picayunes, a type of cigarette; which irony is found when one realizes in Spanish it means “something of very little value, a trifle.” On occasion she also confessed to smoking marijuana, and seems to be a drinker. She loyally reads tabloids, travel folders, and astrological charts, as well as letters from her brother overseas. She plays the guitar very well (taught to her by Doc) and sings a little. Although her profession is never named, she makes it part of her job to study horses and baseball, and trained herself to like men over 40 who give her considerable amounts of money to visit the powder room. Holly considers herself bisexual. | |||
She has no qualms about lying when it amuses or benefits her. She seems to have loyalties to no one except for her brother, Fred, with whom she fantasizes about having a horse farm near the sea in Mexico. Being rich and famous is in the top of her priorities. The narrator describes her as a lop sided romantic, as well as a crude exhibitionist, a time waster, and an utter fake. | |||
Holly is a spunky 19 year old woman who goes her own way and does her own thing. She is a bit of a vagabond. She only stays in one place for so long. If something starts to go awry, she will pack up her stuff and move on to another place. She lives in apartment #2 of a brownstone apartment complex in New York City. Her apartment reflects her personality, for it always has the look of being just moved in to, and the look of just about to be moved out of. | Holly is a spunky 19 year old woman who goes her own way and does her own thing. She is a bit of a vagabond. She only stays in one place for so long. If something starts to go awry, she will pack up her stuff and move on to another place. She lives in apartment #2 of a brownstone apartment complex in New York City. Her apartment reflects her personality, for it always has the look of being just moved in to, and the look of just about to be moved out of. | ||
===Joe Bell=== | ===Joe Bell=== | ||
Joe Bell | Owner of a quiet bar on Lexington Avenue, referred to as Joe Bell's. Physically described to be small, with fine coarse white hair, a sloping bony face better suited to a tall person, and a complexion which always appears sunburnt. He has a froggy voice. Suspected to be homosexual. Devoted to and loves Holly; took numerous phone messages for her when she was in New York, and through out the years during her absence has constantly looked for her in the streets. He doesn't have an easy nature, self described due to being a bachelor and having a sour stomach, which he regularly self medicates with Tums. He is very difficult to talk to unless you are interested in Holly, ice hockey, Weimaraner dogs, Our Gal Sunday (Soap serial on for 15 years), and Gilbert or Sullivan. Has a froggy voice. He's talented at flower arranging, and keeps fresh flowers in his bar. | ||
===I. Y. Yunioshi=== | |||
Mistakenly said to be from Japan by Bell; but truly from California. He is a photographer featured in a magazine called Winchell, and lived in the studio apartment, top floor of brownstone, during Holly’s time living there. | |||
===Negro man from Africa=== | |||
Tall, delicate, man, who wore a calico skirt. He is a talented wood sculptor from the S Tribe, in Tococul, East Anglia. He was photographed by Yunioshi on Christmas Day in 1956, depicting him with a "shy, yet vain smile, displaying in his hands an odd wood sculpture," of the head of Holly Golightly (p6). Shared a mat with Holly Golightly in Spring of that same year. | |||
===Madame Sapphia Spanella=== | |||
Tenant of brownstone. Described as a husky, coloratura (a singer, usually a soprano, who specializes in music characterized by trills and runs) who goes roller-skating every afternoon in Central Park. She began a petition in brownstone to evict Holly for being “morally objectionable and the perpetrator of all night gatherings that endanger the safety and sanity of her neighbors (p. 64).” | |||
===Sid Arbuck=== | |||
Escorted Holly home the first evening Fred sees her. He picked up the check for five of her friends, whom he did not know, and expected to stay the evening with her. Apparently he did not succeed due to giving her only twenty cents to go to the powder-room. | |||
===Fred=== | |||
Holly’s favorite of four brothers. He was the only one who would let her hug him when it was cold as children. Described to be 6’2” and ‘slow’ or ‘stupid’. Was in the 8th grade for three years, then was drafted into the army where he died. | |||
===Sally Tomato=== | |||
Looks like a monk with gold teeth to Holly. He speaks very little English. While in Sing Sing prison, he was visited every Thursday by Golightly, and gives her a “weather report”. Suspected to be Black hand Mafia. At one time he would hang out at Joe Bell’s often, but didn’t socialize with anyone. | |||
===O.J. Berman=== | |||
An agent who met Holly at Santa Anita, CA when she was 15. Smokes cigars, wears Knize cologne. Wears elevated heals, appears to be a midget, freckled, large head, bald, pointed elven ears, Pekingese eyes which are bulged and unpitying. Hair sprouts from his ears and nose, and has hairy hands. He has a jerky metallic rhythm to his speech. Considers himself sensitive, and loves Holly. | |||
===Benny Polan=== | |||
Asked Holly to marry him; he spent thousands of dollars sending her to psychiatrists. | |||
===Cecil B. DeMille & Gary Cooper=== | |||
Actors starring in The Story of Dr Wassell. | |||
===Rutherford (Rusty) Trawler=== | |||
Middle aged, baby faced, fat and appeared to be a spoiled child. Lost both parents in 1908 at age 5, his father a victim of anarchist and his mother died of shock. This made him instantly a millionaire and celebrity. His godfather arrested for sodomy due to him, and has divorced 3 times. He offered to marry Unity Mitford if Hitler didn’t, thus was referred to as a Nazi by many. Attended rallies in Yorkville. Acts as though he should be in diapers, Holly said he should be wearing a skirt. Talks in a whiney voice. Thinks girls are literally dolls. And although believed to be homosexual, he marries Mag Wildwood. | |||
===Mag Wildwood (Margaret Thatcher Fitzhue Wildwood)=== | |||
Her home town is Wildwood, Arkansas. Models for Yunioshi for the Bazaar. Described to be extremely thin, flat chested, and over 6 feet tall, with a stutter that she over exaggerates. She lives at the Winslow. All men in her family were soldiers, and there is a statue of her father in Wildwood. She is very proud of her country, and considers herself a warmhearted person. She knits. Temporarily roomed with Holly and was engaged to Jose. | |||
===Jose Ybarra-Jaegar=== | |||
A Brazilian with a German mother. He aims to be the president of Brazil. Has a strong latin accent, originally Wildwood’s lover and became Holly’s. He is described to be intelligent, presentable, and very serious about his work, which is related to the government. He is in Washington 3 days a week. His priorities are his name and work, and broke his engagement with Holly due to her publicity with Sally Tomato. | |||
===Mildred Grossman=== | |||
A girl who went to school with the narrator. Described as a top heavy realist with moist hair greasy glasses covering flat eyes. She dissected frogs and went to picket lines, only examined stars to gauge their chemical tonnage. Compared to Holly by the narrator to be a Siamese twin; they would never change because they’d been given their character too soon. (p.58) | |||
===Doc Golightly=== | |||
Farmer, horse doctor, and husband of Holly/Lulamae, from Tulip, Texas. He is described to be very provocative, early fifties w/ a hard weathered face, and gray forlorn eyes. He appeared in New York outside the brownstone wearing an old sweat-stained gray hat, a pale blue, cheap summer suit, loose on his lanky frame. He wore brand new brown shoes. He likes to whistle, and has a very countrified drawl. Smells of tobacco and sweat, and keeps a toothpick in his mouth to chew on. He is very forward when speaking with the narrator. He came via Greyhound to see Holly/Lulamae. His first wife passed away on July 4th 1936, and married Holly/Lulamae December 38 when she was just shy of age 14. | |||
===Nellie=== | |||
Doc’s oldest daughter, discovered Fred and Lulamae stealing milk and turkey eggs. | |||
==Major Themes== | ==Major Themes== | ||