“… God, yes. I simply told—but you know: made it sound like an agonized confession—simply told her I was a dyke.”
Wikipedia describes the film adaptation of Breakfast at Tiffany’s as a romantic comedy. Having read only the novella, which differs from the movie, I can’t help but see a story about obsession—romance-less and tragic. The story is told from Fred’s perspective, and it is easy to understand from his description why it would be easy to fall in love, or become obsessed, with Holly Golightly as the many men in her life are. She’s an elegant, café society girl that Capote, the author, describes as closer to an American geisha than a call girl. She’s charming, sharp, and coy. But perhaps she best characterizes 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.”
Fred’s relationship with Holly is passive and is expressed through the language of the book. At times, Fred’s language is lethargic and dreamlike. For Fred, it seems as if Holly is the center of the action in his life, with the many big changes in his life reduced to sparse mentions when Holly is away. I feel a kinship with Fred because this is how I feel about myself. Obsession causes me to shift my perspective. Suddenly, banal trivialities become interesting because of some tangential relationship to my obsession. Everything becomes analyzed and overflowing with meaning. The difference between obsession and romance is in the characterization.
Very gently the horses began to trot, waves of wind splashed us, spanked our faces, we plunged in and out of sun and shadow pools, and job, a glad-to-be-alive exhilaration, jolted through me like a jigger of nitrogen.
I think there is a less bleak reading of Capote’s novella. After all, I could argue that Fred’s life is made immensely more interesting and dynamic by his relationship with Holly. And it may be unfair of me to make such judgments of our main character’s life. If life is about experiencing the widest range of experiences that life has to offer, Fred’s life is certainly better off. Ultimately, I think that my reflection on Breakfast at Tiffany’s is mostly a personal reflection. I would like to be able to characterize similar episodes of my life positively, as a manner of justifying the degree of passivity obsession tends to introduce. I think it is a sign of maturity to not fall for such a line. It would be an a greater sign to be able to fix it.