Capital Punishment 13 Essay, Research Paper

Breakfast at Tiffany’s

Truman Capote wrote the novel Breakfast at Tiffany’s without a rhyme or a reason. He used real life characters possessing different names. It is stated that the narrator just might have been Truman himself during his early years in New York. It is clear that Mr. Capote does not believe in traditional values. He himself did come from a wealthy unorthodox family life. Capote’s ideal woman was created in Holly Golightly. Mr. Capote uses Authentic Modernism as the literary movement. An author can use his or her literature to live out fantasies.

The theme of the novel is, friendship can make people take drastic measures in helping a friend. This novel appears to be written for pleasure purposes. At the beginning of the novel the narrator starts by explaining the friendship between Joe Bell, Holly, and himself. Capote keeps the reader on his or her toes by there being arguments that would create conflicts putting a halt to the friendships between the main characters. Then, Holly and the narrator would meet and make up over a drink at Joe Bell’s bar or Holly’s apartment room. ” The bulk of Capote’s work persuades us…that both humor and the supernatural are acts of the imagination intended to question our surface evaluations of reality, and indeed to affirm the counterreality of fantasy. The prevalence of dreams, the interest in childhood, the negative conception of adolescent initiation, the concern with W Wiley 2 self-discovery, the emphasis on homoeroticism, and the general stasis of the mythic world of Truman Capote-all these, though they are often presented in ironic terms, must confirm the central narcissistic impulse of his fiction, an impulse which serves both as a critique and a crooked image of American reality” (Hassan 55). One critic stated that ” Holly is the romantic adolescent’s projection of the ideal woman who will make no demands on anybody’s manhood. Capote wrote of her with great admiration” (Merrick 82). ” I’ll never disgrace myself. And I swear, it never crossed my mind about Holly. You can love somebody without it being like that. You keep them a stranger, a stranger who’s a friend” (Capote 10). This was the way Joe Bell felt for Holly. The whole novel is based around an eccentric friendship.

The literary movement is Authentic Modernism. Authentic Modernism is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques. It implies a historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss, of despair. It rejects history and its society and traditional values. It prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious. ” You b-b-boys not vexed at me for butting in on your p-p-party.” was said by Mag Wildwood, one of Holly’s party friends. Another quote from the story showing unconventional technique and humor is Mag saying,” I’ve ten pairs of Argyles in less than three months. And this is the second sweater. What’s the point, though? Sweaters in Brazil. I ought to be making s-s-sun helmets. ” Breakfast at Tiffany’s almost completes the movement in Truman Capote’s fiction from the submerged world of childhood to the real world of people and events”(Nance 136). This quote shows that Capote was transitioning from his late teen works to adult works. It is as if he is saying Capote is writing with more W Wiley 3 maturity. ” Holly Golightly, though she impresses us by her self-sufficiency indeed, one is sometimes led to wonder how “permanent” any of her attachments can be converts her restless love for the world into an active and existential pursuit. “The movement, we see, is toward greater involvement, a breaking out”(Nance 136). This quote shows that Capote is getting Holly to pursuit her dreams.

Holly Golightly is a nineteen year-old self-sufficient woman. Some of her personality traits are admirable, affectionate, while being sort of cold hearted. ” Holly is as complex a character ever written, but a hell of a lot more desirable” (Discovering Authors). She is motivated in life by striving for her purpose in life, which is to be rich and famous while keeping her ego. She believes that love is not sexual. “Holly’s ideal of love is simply not a sexual one, nor is it likely to be any real human being she will meet. The ideal relationship she aspires to is approximated by the narrator’s own relationship with her: tender but distant, and consisting largely of admiration for her brilliance and strength (Nance 136). An important action that Holly did was make back up with the narrator so easily after a fight this reinforces Capote’s concept of friendship. Other characters responded very well to Holly, she was very likeable. She had a short relationship with a Brazilian politician, but that was ended by her arrest for helping a drug triangle unknowingly. ” Holly Golightly, a remote descendant of the heroine of “Master Misery,” has not let the psychiatrist steal her dreams. She belongs to a later generation of Capote heroines who have learned to preserve their integrity by safeguarding their uniqueness. Society helplessly admires her and considers her crazy at

Wiley 4

the same time, but Capote and his narrator have only admiration for her”(Discovering Authors). Holly was a unique character; she was so well liked because she had a peculiar approach to situations.

In conclusion, Capote’s ideal woman was created in Holly Golightly. The theme reached is, friendship can make people take drastic measures in helping a friend. Capote used Authentic Modernism brilliantly. Holly was well liked by everyone she came into contact, even though she came across as inconsiderate. Capote creates Holly for his own pleasure and writes her in an unorthodox way. Holly was an unrealistic person in a realistic world. An author can use his or her literature to live out fantasies.