Characters of Breakfast at Tiffany’s:
The narrator is an unnamed young writer who befriends a young girl socialite of New York who is an implied homosexual. He becomes a well-known literary success and worldwide traveler in his later parts of years. Holiday (Holly) Golightly or Lulamae Barnes is an 18 years old young girl who befriends the narrator. She is eighteen years old. She is an escort who makes a living as a companion to various wealthy and important men, who lavish her with money and expensive presents. She lives in the same apartment with the narrator whom she refers to as "Fred" because he looks like her brother. Doc Golightly is a veterinarian from Tulip, Texas. He informs that Holly’s original name was Lulama. He unofficially adopted Holly when she and her brother had run away from the foster home they had been placed in following their parents' deaths. A widower with four children, Doc married Holly when she was fourteen and was despondent when she escaped shortly thereafter. Joe Bell is the owner of the apartment where Holly and the narrator live. He is apparently a homosexual with some esoteric tastes who befriends the narrator. Yunioshi is a magazine photographer who is a neighbor of Holly and is attracted to her. ‘African carver’ is an artist from Africa who made a wooden carving that resembles Holly. Sally Tomato is a New York mafia incarcerated in Sing Sing prison on racketeering charges. He runs a drug racket while still in jail with the help of Holly and his lawyer. Holly gets $100 per week for her help. Oliver O’Shaugnessy is lawyer of Sally who is a defrocked priest and gangster. Sapphia Spanella is another neighbor of the narrator who despises Holly. She directs the authorities to Holly when they are seeking to arrest her. O.J. Berman is a friend and talent agent of Holly who helps her and hires a top-notch lawyer Iggy Fitelstein to defend them when she gets arrested. Rusty Trawler is a millionaire who is a companion of Holly but marries her friend model Mag Wildwood. Jose Yberra-Jaegar is a crucial Brazilian politician who aspires to the presidency of his country. He is Mag’s fiancee but develops an affair with Holly.
Summary of Breakfast at Tiffany’s:
The story begins as the narrator gets a call from his old friend Joe Bell who used to be his landlord in the past. Joe Bell asks the narrator to visit his bar. The phone call reminds the narrator of his old time when he was struggling as a writer. He also remembers Holly Golightly with whom he shared the rented apartment owned by Joe. The narrator loved Holly but it was not sexual. The narrator implies that he is homosexual and so was Joe Bell who became his friend. The narrator hasn’t seen Joe or Holly for many years. He visits Joe’s bar and Joe shows him a photograph of a carving that exactly resembles Holly Golightly. Joe informs that he got that photograph from Yunioshi who took the picture in some African country where an African artist had made that carving. Joe says that Yunioshi tried to buy that carving but the artist refused to sell it and said that it is a representation of a young white woman who unexpectedly visited his village earlier that year. He implies that he had an affair with this woman, who later departed just as suddenly as she had arrived. The narrator is not sure if the story is true, however, he says that he too searches for Holly in any place he visits. He has always loved Holly and he wonders where she has gone.
The narrator then recalls his first meeting with Holly at Joe’s Brownstone apartment where Holly was already living. The narrator became one of her neighbors. Holly had a habit of returning home late and buzzing her neighbors, asking to be let in because she has forgotten her keys. The narrator recalls how once she buzzed the doorbell of Yunioshi, who is a magazine photographer. When he got annoyed, Holly promised to let him take her raunchy pictures. Then the narrator informs that he too fell victim to this habit of Holly. One night, she knocked at the window of the narrator and said that a drunk man is annoying her. She brought the man to her house but now she hopes that he will fall asleep. Holly and the narrator pass the time by sharing a drink. The narrator explained that he is a writer and shared a story written by him with Holly. Holly plainly criticized the story and the narrator was hurt but he felt that even in her criticism, Holly has a certain charm. Holly informed that she is an escort who accompanies rich men at parties and gets expensive presents and money in return. She insisted that she is not a prostitute but an American geisha meant only to accompany rich men at parties. While talking, the narrator and Holly fall asleep on his bed and the narrator notices that she is calling out the name ‘Fred’ in her sleep. When she wakes up, she starts crying and when the narrator asks her, she refuses to share the reason. Instead, she runs away through the window. From then, Holly started calling the narrator as ‘Fred.’ When the narrator asked why he calls her Fred, she said that he reminds him of her younger brother whose name is Fred.
One day, Holly invites the narrator to one of her parties where he meets O. J. Berman from California. Berman informs the narrator that he tried to establish Holly as a Hollywood actress but when he succeeded to fix an audition for her, she decided to leave California for New York. Berman says that Holly is a mystery but he loves her. The narrator also meets Rusty Trawler, a divorced millionaire from New York. Rusty is a notorious philanderer and he is dating Holly these days.
The narrator asks Holly about her past. Holly says that she tried to be an actress in California and her feeling of not knowing what she wants to do with her life. She is so uncommitted to anything that she hardly has any furniture and has not named her cat. She says that sometimes she fears this existential crisis and during those moments she visits Tiffany’s jewelry store and gazes in wonder at the expensive items that she cannot buy. Holly says that it is her dream to take breakfast at Tiffany’s which is not possible because Tiffany’s doesn’t sell food. The store is the only place in the world that makes her feel calm.
Mag Wildwood arrives at the party though she was not invited. Holly mentions that maybe Mag is suffering from a venereal disease (S.T.D) and thus her guests should avoid it. Mag gets too angry and drinks too much and then abuses Holly. Holly asks the narrator to take care of Mag who falls unconscious after drinking too much. After the party, Mag sleeps in Holly’s room and after some days, they develop a friendship, and Mag moves in with Holly. Mag is engaged to Jose, a young Brazillian politician who frequently starts visiting Holly’s room to meet Mag.
The narrator succeeds to get a publisher for his story and he shares the news with Holly who encourages him and takes him to lunch to celebrate. While enjoying their time together they pass through various shops and look for their favourite items through the shop windows. The narrator especially liked a birdcage.
On that Christmas, Holly presents the same birdcage to the narrator but insists that he should promise her that he will never keep a living thing in that birdcage. The narrator also presents her with a medal of St. Christopher from Tiffany’s that Holly loves. However, soon their friendship gets strained as Holly maintains her criticism and says that the narrator is wasting his time writing stories about uninteresting subjects. The narrator feels insulted and starts maintaining a distance from Holly.
After some days, the narrator notices a stranger spying on Holly. He confronts him and finds out that the man is Doc Golightly. The man informs that he is a horse doctor from Tunip, Texas where Holly is originally from and her birth name is Lulamae Barnes. He says that her parents died when she was only 10 years old and she was shifted to a foster house along with her younger brother Fred Barnes. The doctor was a widower and lonely, with no child. He adopted Lulamae and Fred. When Lulamae turned 14, he decided to marry her. But Lulamae wasn’t ready for family life and decided to run away and turned her name to Holly, though she maintained her husband’s surname. The narrator helps Doc Golightly in meeting Holly. Holly recognizes him as her estranged husband and spends a night with him but asks him to go back to Texas the next morning, She insists that she will never return to him. Doc Golightly decides to return to Fred. Meanwhile, Mag falls ill as she suffers from sunburn. When she is admitted to a hospital, Holly comes near to Jose and they start flirting with each other. Mag suspects Holly, but she insists that she is a lesbian and wouldn’t care for Jose. Mag doesn’t like lesbians and thus, she breaks her friendship with Holly. However, soon she realizes that her suspicion was true and Holly has in fact developed an affair with Jose who has impregnated him. Nonetheless, the narrator learns that Mag too moved on and got married to Rusty Trawler who used to date Holly.
Holly and the narrator decide to celebrate his birthday by going to Central Park where they enjoy horse riding. However, the narrator’s horse gets spooked and he fails to control her. Holly saves his life after much effort. Holly announces that she is planning to leave New York as Jose has proposed to marry her and take her to Brazil. The narrator isn’t happy about it but he congratulates Holly. On the same evening, the authorities visit the apartment to enquire about Holly and one of her neighbors Sapphia Spanella who dislikes Holly and calls her a whore because many men visit her room, and direct them to Holly’s room. Holly gets arrested and the narrator comes to know that she had been an associate of Sally Tomato, the notorious imprisoned Mafia leader. He used to run a drug racket despite being in prison with the help of his lawyer Oliver O’Shaughnessy. Oliver appointed Holly to visit the Sing Sing jail every week to offer a ‘weather report’ to Sally Tomato. Holly became an intermediate between Sally and Oliver and through her help, they ran the drug rackett. Holy used to get $100 per week for her services. Holly gets arrested for this charge. The narrator tries to help her but he doesn’t have money to hire a lawyer. He asks for help from Holly’s other friends but none is ready to help her. However, O. J. Berman agrees to appoint a top lawyer Iggy Fitelstein to defend Holly and get her out on bail. As she comes out of jail, she gets a telegram from Doc Golightly, informing her of Fred’s death. She also gets a letter from Jose in which he declares his break up with Holly because he doesn’t want to continue with a convicted criminal as it will harm his political future in Brazil. Holly takes a sigh and informs the narrator that she suffered a miscarriage and lost her child. The narrator believes that it happened because she put extra effort into the horse while trying to save him.
Nonetheless, Holly announces that after this scandal, she cannot afford to stay in New York. She decides to run away from America while still on bail. Since she already has the ticket to Brazil that Jose brought for her, she decides to go to Brazil. She asks the narrator’s help in bringing her suitcase and her cat so that she may leave for Brazil. The narrator isn’t happy about it but promises to help her. He takes the suitcase and the cat to Joe Bell’s bar where Holly is waiting. She takes a taxi and the narrator accompanies her to the airport. On the way, she releases the cat on the road. The narrator chastises her for leaving the cat helpless. Holly gets sad and asks him to relocate the cat and take care of him. Before she leaves, the narrator promises to find her cat. On his return, the narrator finds out the cat and keeps it with him.
After some days, the narrator receives a message from Holly informing him about her stay in Buenos Aires. She promised to keep in touch with the narrator but he never got any other message from her.
So this is it for today. We will continue discussing the history of American English literature. Please stay connected with the Discourse. Thanks and Regards!
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