Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's

Résumé du document

This document will attempt to analyze the character Holly Golightly in the light her following statement: "I'm very scared, because it could go on forever. Not knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away." Holly Golightly is the main protagonist in ?Breakfast at Tiffany's'. She is a very lively, free spirited young woman who is in a quest for a home and a place to belong to. Holly's pretended name is the symbol of her philosophy and way of living. ?Holly', in turn, may be considered and abbreviation of "holidays?, an expression of her frivolity. As the novel develops, this character becomes increasingly complex and contradicts the superficial vision we have of her when she explains that Tiffany's is her only home. Holly says, "It calms me down right away, the quietness and proud look of it; nothing bad could happen to you there, not with those kind of men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets [?]". In fact, we could try to explain literally the quotation that we are studying in this essay by giving its direct meaning and linking it with Holly's thoughts and behavior throughout the novel.

Extraits

[...] This might be the key to simplicity and we can imagine that Holly while travelling finally found the place where she belonged and peacefully lived with her past in a corner of her mind. Holly's character reminded me of Thomas Hardy's Mayor of Casterbridge where a character named Donald Farfrae (like Holly, his name also has a signification: he comes from far away and is a free man), revolutions the social, political and agricultural life of an English town in the middle of the nineteenth century: like Holly, he has an adventurous personality and transforms his environment before leaving, in quest of a home when his home could have been Casterbridge. [...]

[...] We can imagine that Holly knows that this is the last time she sees the narrator for her very particular way of life might on forever”. This is why she reveals such an important aspect of her personality to her closest friend in the novel. Holly is therefore a very complex woman, torn between her naturally adventurous, imaginative personality and her painful past. After studying Truman Capote's personality in class, it becomes clear that the narrator and Holly are parts of himself: at the same time Capote was this creative writer interested by social subjects and this very fashionable character who cultivated an image in society. [...]

[...] In the beginning of the novel, Holly asks the narrator if she can sleep in bed with him, after a long nocturnal discussion. The narrator pretends to be asleep and Holly begins to think aloud. She wonders where Fred is and we can feel pain and sadness in her words. Later on in the book, we understand that Fred is her brother, a brother that she left alone in Texas and who has been sent to war. We quickly understand that she strongly misses Fred and that her habit to call the narrator Fred will be a way to replace him temporarily. [...]

[...] Not knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away.” Holly Golightly is Breakfast at Tiffany's major character. She is a very lively, free spirited young woman who is in a quest for a home and a place to belong. Holly's pretended name is the symbol of her philosophy and way of living: Holly might be “holyday's contraction, the expression of her frivolity. Throughout the novel, this character seems to become more and more complex and contradicts the superficial vision we have of her when she explains that Tiffany's is her only home: Holly says, "It calms me down right away, the quietness and proud look of it; nothing bad could happen to you there, not with those kind of men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets [ In fact, we could try to explain literally the quotation that we are studying in this essay by giving its direct meaning and link it with Holly's thoughts and behaviors throughout the novel. [...]

[...] Like every good liar she believes in the lies she tells and therefore forgets or leaves aside what she really thinks or is. Once again, throwing things away has to be understood like throwing things away in a corner of her mind: things are still present in her mind but her imagination goes beyond. We have to remember that Holly is a former actress, but an actress getting too much involved in her part. This might be what one of the novel's final episode reveals: when Holly pronounces the quotation that we are studying, she realises that her natural tendency to play different parts, combined with her quest for freedom and a home are paradoxical: this is why she realizes the non sense of knowing what's yours until you've thrown it away”. [...]