“Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a story by Truman Capote. In this story, the author focuses on a very attention-grabbing character called Holly Golightly. Holly is a woman who takes advantage of others, she doesn’t really care who she inconveniences in order to get what she wants or needs, and most of her personal relationships are momentary and meaningless. Another important feature of Holly is that, she loves having freedom in her life. She only cares about money and about finding the next amusing thing to do. Holly is one of the most interesting and confusing characters that can ever be written about.
She is a character that does not even identify her own self. Holly thinks that she is an independent and a self-reliant person, but the truth is that she is not . One of the main reasons that she is not independent it is because she is so used to stealing things, which she thinks it is a way of being independent , but unfortunately it isn’t the truth . No matter what she thinks or does, shoplifting is not a healthy lifestyle . She also mentions in the story “I used to steal, I mean I had to. ” (55) . She is not independent, but a dependent person.
Holly is also a very promiscuous and a very low person because she only uses men for their money, like Rusty Trawler. She used Rusty Trawler for his money because he was apparently is the 6th richest man in America. Holly later finds out that he is broke and had so much debt, and because of that she doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore. Essentially she would do everything for money. In the story Holly even visits criminals in jail just for money. A 90’s woman is only reliant on herself, because women now get equal opportunities and privileges for everything.
Today, women work for themselves; they make their own money and raise a child all by themselves. This lifestyle would of never happen to Holly back in her days. She is just way too dependent on other men for that. Holly and women of her generation were greatly dependent on men and because of that she had to use them for money. Even though a Holly’s character is defined as a very bad character, she had something that made herself as a very sympathetic person . One that cannot be forgotten about her; is the attachment she had for her brother Fred.
Holly’s feelings about her brother show us that had that she had a happier period in her life, a time when she had her brother near to be there for her . It also shows that Fred seems to be the one that has always been there for her because of her difficulty during her childhood. Even her reaction was very severe, when she finds out when her brother had been killed. Fred’s nonappearance lets us know that Holly really has no one that she entirely trusts or feels comfy around since Fred was always the one to offer that for her: “Like my brother Fred.
We used to sleep four in a bed, and he was the only one that ever let me hug him on a cold night. ” (18) At some point of the story Holly meets a new man; he was the “narrator”. Holly grows real affection for the narrator. So it’s understandable that she does have emotional deepness. At one point of the story; Holly asks the narrator if she can call him Fred because it reminds her of her brother, so basically she’s trying to recall that safe and warm feeling she had with her brother. The desire for freedom and the fear of imprisonment is really something that is important in Holly’s life .
The need for freedom makes Holly act in strange ways in order to protect her independence. The desire for freedom also prevents her character from allowing other people to get too close to her because she is scared that others would then have some power over her. For an example she can’t even look at material of imprisonment like cages because of what these things represent. She says “Promise me, though. Promise you’ll never put a living thing in it” (33) In conclusion, Holly had faced many things throughout her life.
She started out with a difficult childhood, and because of that she had learned a way of depending on other men ; by using their money. Holly also wants the desire of freedom; because she never wants to be questioned and she does not want her life to be controlled by anyone. On the other hand, Holly obviously has a soft side in her personality; she loves her brother and she always keeps her words. Holly portrays a very interesting character of herself in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and should be acknowledged by others.
