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1. The story begins when the bartender Joe
Bell and the narrator talk about Mr. Yunioshi’s report that Holly
Golightly had been living in Africa. What aura does the opening chapter
lend to the character of Holly? What feelings does Holly evoke in Joe
Bell?
2. What does Holly mean by her advice about powder-room change to Sid
Arbuck, when she refuses to let him into her apartment (12, 21)? Holly
tells the narrator, "I’ve simply trained myself to like older
men, and it was the smartest thing I ever did" (16). Why has she trained
herself? How does Holly support herself?
3. Holly decides to call the narrator "Fred" after her brother. Why,
after her brother’s death, does she stop calling him Fred (63)?
4. O. J. Berman tells the narrator that Holly is a phony. What does he
mean? Why has she decided not to become a Hollywood actress (24-25,
31)?
5. What does Holly mean by "the mean reds"? Why does Tiffany’s, the
luxury jewelry store on Fifth Avenue, make her feel better (32)?
6. When the narrator and Holly tell each other stories about their
childhoods, Holly admits that hers is untrue (43-44). Is Holly
dishonest, or is she, like the narrator, a kind of storytelling artist?
How would you describe Holly’s approach to life?
7. Why is Rusty Trawler a good choice as a boyfriend for Holly? Why does
Holly allow the narrator to see her in the bathtub and in other states
of undress? What is assumed but never stated about his sexuality?
8. The story takes a surprising turn with the arrival of Doc Golightly.
How is he described? How do his story, and the photograph he shows the
narrator, transform your understanding of Holly and her past (52-56)?
9. Holly has transformed herself into a stylish New Yorker, but how much
is she still attached to her past? How does Holly explain her feelings
for Doc (58)? How does she react to the death of her brother Fred
(63-67)?
10. The narrator sees a birdcage in an antique shop, and later Holly
buys it for him as a surprise gift, but tells him never to keep a living
thing in it (47). Later, she tells Joe Bell, "Never love a wild thing,
Mr. Bell" (59). Does Holly imply anything about herself and her
relationships with these references?
11. Holly explains her ideas about ethics: "It’s a bore, but the answer
is good things only happen to you if you’re good. Good? Honest is more
what I mean. Not law-type honest…but unto-thyself-type honest. Be
anything but a coward, a pretender, an emotional crook, a whore: I’d
rather have cancer than a dishonest heart" (66). Would you agree? Does
Holly have a high standard of behavior for herself?
12. While Holly seems genuinely to care about the narrator, she seems to
have no other real friends. At the party, she makes the gathering of men
understand that Mag Wildwood has a sexually transmitted disease
(36). Does her opportunism with regard to the rich men in her life also
extend to Mag? Does she see Mag as a rival? Why then does she decide to
let Meg move in with her (42)?
13. The narrator describes a walk with Holly to Chinatown, a chow mein
supper and a walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. "On the bridge, as we
watched the seaward-moving ships pass between the cliffs of burning
skyline," she tells him that many years hence, she will bring her "nine
Brazilian brats" back to see New York (67). Why is the narrator sad at
this moment? Is theirs an ideal friendship?
14. We are reminded of the suffering in Holly’s life when she loses "the
heir," when José leaves her, and when she tells the narrator about her
hallucinations of "the fat woman" after Fred’s death (77-82).
Considering what Holly has been through in her earlier life and the fact
that she is now under criminal indictment, what do you think of her
attitude toward her future?
15. During the drive to the airport, Holly lets her cat out onto the
street and then regrets it. The narrator fulfills his promise to find
the cat—who has a new home—and he completes the tale with the hope that
Holly, too, has arrived where she belongs. Capote told The Paris
Review, "Finding the right form for your story is simply to realize
the most natural way of telling the story. The test of whether or
not a writer has divined the natural shape of his story is just this:
after reading it, can you imagine it differently, or does it silence
your imagination and seem to you absolute and final?" Is Breakfast at
Tiffany’s an example of Capote’s ideal? Do you find the story’s
structure, with its interlocking beginning and ending, satisfying?
16. Norman Mailer wrote, "Truman Capote is the most perfect writer of my
generation. He writes the best sentences word for word, rhythm upon
rhythm." Ask each person in your group to choose a favorite sentence,
and discuss why Capote is such a great prose stylist.
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