"Breakfast at Tiffany's" by Truman Capote

Breakfast at Tiffany's is an autumn book. The one you should read under the coverlet with a cup of hot tea in your hand and raindrops beating their tune against the window.

Little frightened Lulamae Barnes who wanted to be strong and mature Holly Golightly... For all her little oddities you can't help loving her probably because all these oddities are rather her advantages than drawbacks, or maybe because there are not so many people who'd have a nerve to live like she did...

Miss Holiday Golightly, Traveling. Through these four words on a Tiffany's card on a mailbox the narrator gets acquainted with Holly. That doesn't give you much information. Or does it? Listen again - Holiday Go-lightly - a very expressive name, together with Traveling sounds like a never-ending moveable feast of a life. And indeed what a feast it is! Holly lives for a moment, jolly, bright and luxurious moment. Her life is all parties and cafes and men adoring her. She is in constant search of new impressions and emotions and is ready to try out whatever may arouse them. While other girls want to marry for love, money or whatever else, Holly's motive is much simpler: "What you want to cry for, Doc? 'Course we'll be married. I've never been married before". For her it's like buying a new dress or travelling to a new place - she's never done it before, so why shouldn't she try it out?

"I'll never get used to anything. Anybody that does, they might as well be dead", - Holly thinks. For her life seems to be eternal movement, but the problem is that she is afraid to stop. She constantly needs new people, places and feelings only because she is afraid to get too close to anything or anybody, so close, that she wouldn't be able to move on. And then... then it would be too easy to hurt her, catch her into a small cage which won't let her think, breathe and live.

Freedom is very important for Holly. She'd rather die than be dependent on somebody. She's a wild thing whom nobody can own. Probably that's the reason why she hates zoos - she can't stand the sight of other wild things being imprisoned.There was once a cage in her life - a small provincial town in Texas - and she escaped from it as soon as she could. There was nothing to run from - her husband was madly in love with her, she didn't need to do anything about the house and always got whatever she wanted. then what was wrong? Nobody knew the answer except for Holly herself: "But you can't give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get. Until they're strong enough to run into the woods. Or fly into a tree. Then a taller tree. Then the sky. That's how you'll end up, Mr. Bell. If you let yourself love a wild thing. You'll end up looking at the sky."

Holly is full of confrontations. Wanting to be free she simultaneously needs to be loved. But doesn't love presupposes becoming dependent? It does in some way I think. That is why Holly doesn't love anybody in particular (maybe except for only Fred), but that doesn't mean she can't love at all. She loves people in general, finding something good in each of them, and she is in love with life itself. A very important thing here is her admirers. Several times the author emphasizes that she chooses men who are much older that she and this in my opinion comes from her childhood - she needs a father firstly, somebody to take care of her, and only than a lover. Though Holly herself denies it, for me it seems to be the only probable explanation.

In fact looking for new impressions and running away from old ones Holly looks for her place in the world. She is very confused about who she is and what she should do in this life. After all inside she is still the same Lulamae, just a child who was robbed of her childhood. Having lost her parents and been sent to live with some awful people, with only her brother to cling to, Lulamae was forced to behave like a grown-up but not to be one. Becoming a wife and a mother at 14 for sure didn't improve the situation. That's too great a responsibility and Lulamae wasn't ready to accept it. So she escapes not only from Texas but also from herself - for everybody Lulamae has disappeared, meet Holly Golightly.

Unfortunately changing your name doesn't make you another person and running away from your problems doesn't make them disappear. Holly may be strong and always sunny but it's Lulamae who plays the guitar on the balcony and calls her brother Fred in her dreams.

Holly still has something of a child in her ways and still she is afraid of responsibility. Why else would she live with a nameless cat in a room looking as if she's just moved in?

"I don't want to own anything until I know I've found the place where me and things belong together. I'm not quite sure where that is just yet. But I know what it's like... It's like Tiffany's... It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets. If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany's, then I'd buy some furniture and give the cat a name. I've thought maybe after the war, Fred and I — " "I went to Mexico once. It's wonderful country for raising horses. I saw one place near the sea. Fred's good with horses."

Here is how Tiffany's fits in, at last. But don't you think that Holly is after money, not at all. Money and jewelries for her are symbols of confidence, stability, something she runs from but at the same time something she lacks badly. Holly has chosen to play a game of happiness, to have the time of her life, not thinking about any problems. But somewhere inside her she understands that this game can't last forever, so she looks for her place, a quiet place to stop at and be herself at last. And while she's searching, her never-ending moveable feast will go on.

I don't mean to say that Holly is unhappy, she seems to be quite content with her little game. And she is sure that her dream about her place in life will come true. Even when Fred who was meant to be a part of this dream dies in the war she finds strength to get up and move on. And even dream on.

Miss Holly Golightly. Semi-child and semi-adult, living in a room without furniture but with a nameless cat. She can tell everything about herself when you don't expect her to, but will be offended if you'll ask her about her life. She likes parties and people. For her happiness is hidden in a small blue box with a white ribbon.

P.S. For me there's never been, is or will be any other Holly Golightly than that performed by Audrey Hepburn.