47 pages • 1 hour read
Truman CapoteBreakfast at Tiffany's
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 1958A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 1-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
In the 1940s, the unnamed narrator of Breakfast at Tiffany's lived in a brownstone building on the Upper East Side of New York City. He remembers the apartment fondly as it was the first place where he hoped he could become "the writer [he] wanted to be" (3). During this time, he never thought about writing a story about one of the most fascinating figures in his life: a young woman named Holly Golightly. However, he was inspired to write her story after reuniting with another old friend, Joe Bell. Joe owned and operated a bar on the Upper East Side where the narrator and Holly spent many nights. Joe calls the narrator and, for the first time in years, the narrator wonders whether he might receive news "about Holly.”
The narrator goes to Joe's bar. As Joe mixes a cocktail, he shows the narrator a photograph taken by "a certain Mr. I.Y. Yunioshi" (5). Like the narrator, Yunioshi once lived in the same brownstone apartment building as Holly. When travelling through Africa, Yunioshi was shocked to see a wooden sculpture which is "the spitimage of Holly Golightly" (6). According to the story told to Joe by Yunioshi, "a party of three white persons" (7) appeared one day on horseback, a woman flanked by two exhausted men, and asked to stay and recover in the small village where the sculptor lived. As the men recovered, the sculptor and the woman (Holly) began a brief romantic affair. He sculpted her face as a tribute. Joe has his doubts about the story—such as the romantic nature of the relationship between Holly and the sculptor—but he is willing to believe that it is true and that Holly is in Africa. The narrator realizes that he has not heard an update about Holly in a long time, though he believes that she has "probably never set foot in Africa" (8). More likely, he tells Joe, is that she is either dead or in a mental health institution. She may even be married and living in New York.
Joe disagrees. If she were in the city, he would have seen her. He admits that he still looks out for her face whenever he walks along the street. The narrator never suspected that Joe, like many others, was in love with Holly. Joe is ruffled by the suggestion but, as the narrator is about to leave, he admits that he was in love with a certain idea of Holly. His love for her was not just physical desire, he explains. He is growing older now, so his idea of sex and romance has changed. Joe asks whether the narrator truly believes that Holly could be in Africa. The narrator does not answer directly; either way, he suggests, she is now "gone" (9).
Chapter 2 Summary
The narrator remembers the first time he met Holly. In the early 1940s, he moves into the brownstone apartment building. One of the names fixed to the mailboxes in the building lobby suggests that Miss Holiday Golightly is away "traveling" (10). However, the narrator knows that she is not away. He has heard his neighbors loudly complaining in the night because Holly has rung their doorbell, asking to be let in after forgetting her key. When she wakes Yunioshi, for example, he is angry. The narrator overhears her sweettalk Yunioshi by promising that she will pose for "those pictures we mentioned" (11). She never tells him when, exactly, she will pose for him but Yunioshi seems satisfied.
The narrator enters the hallway in time to see Holly enter the building with an unknown man. She slips into her own apartment alone, leaving the man complaining in the hallway. He insists that he paid for her dinner, as well as her friends' dinners, so this gives him "the right" (12) to be allowed inside. Holly ignores him. Just as he is about to knock angrily on her door, he changes his mind and leaves. Before he can exit, Holly leans out of her apartment and chides him for being cheap.
Chapter 3 Summary
One night, Holly buzzes the narrator's apartment and asks to be let into the building. After he lets her in, she repeats this request several times though she and the narrator have "never met" (13). One evening, the narrator is treated to a meal in an expensive restaurant by his visiting relative. He is surprised to see Holly also in the restaurant, sharing her table with a group of men. She seems bored, however, and the narrator feels his own excitement deflate. While passing through the city one day, the narrator sees an ornate birdcage in a store window. He is struck by the item and imagines himself owning it. However, the birdcage costs $350 and he knows that he cannot afford it. Afterward, he sees a group of "whiskey-eyed Australian army officers" (14) serenading Holly on the street.
The narrator becomes increasingly fascinated by Holly even though she barely seems aware of his existence. When she rips up letters from soldiers and throws them into the trash, the narrator glimpses a few words and learns more about Holly's life. He becomes something of an authority on her exploits, to the point where he knows that she reads astrology columns in magazines, smokes a certain brand of cigarette, plays the guitar "very well" (15) on her fire escape, and that she owns a cat which does not have a name. The narrator listens to Holly playing the guitar and notes that her choice of folk songs seems out of step with her glamorous persona.
In September, the narrator meets Holly formally for the first time. He is reading in bed with a glass of whiskey when she appears on his fire escape. She knocks on his window and, when he lets her inside, she tells him that she returned home with "the most terrifying man" (16) who is now in her apartment. She wants to avoid him as he is not his usual charming self when he is drunk, so she hopes that he will fall asleep soon. Holly is surprised that the narrator resembles her brother, Fred. She talks briefly about her childhood and her close relationship with Fred. Holly is surprised by the cramped nature of the narrator's apartment. When he insists that he quickly became used to the limited space, she responds that she never gets used to anything. Someone who gets used to something, she says, may "as well be dead" (17). They discuss the narrator's writing and he admits that he is yet to sell anything. Holly promises to "help" (18) him with his career. They share a drink and she asks to hear one of his stories. However, the narrator is pained when Holly is clearly uninterested in the story he reads to her. He does not correct her on the small details of the story that she seems to have misunderstood as he does not want the “further embarrassment” (19) of explaining his story to her.
Holly is surprised that the time is already 4:30 a.m. and even more surprised to learn that the day is a Thursday. She explains to the narrator that, each Thursday, she travels to Sing Sing prison to meet a criminal named Sally Tomato. Holly's "irresistible" stories make the narrator forget to feel insulted about her lack of interest in his writing. Sally Tomato, Holly explains, is a member of the mob and a "darling old man" (22). Holly has been asked by Sally's lawyer to visit him once a week in exchange for $100. Holly pretends to be Sally's niece and she brings him messages, written in code. The narrator mentions that this arrangement "doesn't sound right" (23). Holly insists that she has taken care of herself "for a long time" (24). Feeling tired, she lays down on the narrator's bed just as dawn begins to break. The narrator lays sleeplessly beside her. He hears her crying in her sleep and calling out for Fred. When he wakes her, however, she accuses him of eavesdropping.
Chapter 4 Summary
The next day, Holly sends a note to the narrator to thank him for his help. Though she says she will not bother him again, he responds with a note of his own, telling her "please do" (25). For several days, he hears nothing from her. When he sends her a note to remind her about Thursday, she invites him for a drink in her apartment. The narrator goes to her apartment, where he finds a short man named O. J. Berman. Holly, O. J. says, is "in the shower" (26). He questions the narrator about whether Holly invited him; many men, he reveals, show up at Holly's home uninvited. When the narrator reveals that he is Holly's neighbor, however, O. J. visibly relaxes. They discuss Holly; O. J. mentions that she can appear "phony" (27) but she is very sincere. Despite her stubbornness, O.J. likes her just as much as everyone else.
O. J. met Holly in California. He is a "Hollywood actor's agent" (28) who helped to coach her to lose her original accent so that she could work in the film industry, though he has never been quite able to discern her actual origins. He is resigned to never truly knowing about Holly's past. He remembers that when Holly finally secured an important audition for a film, she abandoned her dreams of being a movie star and moved across the country to New York. She claimed that she no longer wanted to be an actress or deal with the fame and celebrity that might ensue. She does not know what she wants, O. J. says, but she has promised to tell him when she finds out. He is surprised at her current lifestyle. He suspects that she wants to make money from "tips" (29) or marry the notorious lothario Rusty Trawler. When the narrator mentions that he does not know Rusty, O. J. takes this as evidence that he barely knows Holly.
Holly enters the room with "a towel more or less wrapped round her" (30). O. J. admits that he was speaking to the narrator about her. Again, Holly refers to the narrator as Fred and then mocks O. J. for putting on airs. She praises the narrator's writing talent and suggests that O. J. should work with the narrator. Holly leaves instructions to let in anyone who knocks at the door and goes to get ready. A series of men arrive, one-by-one with "no common theme" (31), and seem surprised that they are not alone with Holly. None of the men seem particularly young to the narrator. The narrator withdraws to the bookshelf and pretends to read while he observes the other guests. Rusty Trawler, a youthful, animated man, mixes drinks and talks loudly, commanding attention. The narrator finds a newspaper clipping on the bookshelf which concerns Rusty, an orphan and a millionaire whose experiences of "marriage and divorce" (32) have scandalized the newspapers. Recently, Rusty has been credibly accused of being a Nazi sympathizer.
Holly interrupts the narrator's thoughts. He asks her about her visit to Sally Tomato but she quickly moves the conversation along in a "humorless" (33) manner. She asks him about her other guests. Referring to O. J., she admits that she did not want to be an actress. She would, however, like to be "rich and famous" (34) but perhaps not yet. If she were rich, she claims that she would have breakfast at Tiffany's jewelry store every day. She picks up her cat, telling the narrator that she found him while walking along the river. The cat has no name and—much like herself—the cat does not belong to anyone. Holly explains that she only wants to settle down when she feels a true sense of belonging. The only place where she experiences such a feeling is Tiffany's. Not because of the diamonds or the jewelry, she explains, but because the store has a way of settling her feelings of angst. These feelings are not quite like the blues, but more like the "mean reds" (35). She wishes she could find a way to bring the calmness of Tiffany's to the rest of her life. Then, she could settle down in a nice apartment and even give a name to her cat. She begins to wonder whether she might be able to do so with her brother Fred once World War II is over but she abruptly ends the thought and changes the subject.
Rusty interrupts the conversation between Holly and the narrator. He is hungry and complains to Holly that the lack of food is a sign that she does not "love" (36) him enough. Holly dismisses his complaint and the narrator feels as though Rusty is deliberately seeking her attention. She refuses to answer Rusty when he asks whether she loves him. When Rusty fetches a drink, the narrator repeats the question. Holly feels that she could benefit hugely from marrying such a "rich" (37) man but implies that Rusty is homosexual, meaning that their relationship is not a romantic one.
The party is interrupted by the arrival of a tall, stuttering woman named Mag Wildwood. She enters the apartment and accuses Holly of "hogging" (38) all these attractive men. Holly seems displeased by Mag's arrival. Holly waits until Mag goes to the bathroom. Then, Holly loudly implies that Mag suffers from a "mysterious" (39) venereal disease. When Mag exits the bathroom, the male guests show an "abrupt absence of warmth" (40) toward her. Mag responds by drinking heavily. She argues with people and then eventually collapses in a drunken stupor. Holly leads her guests out to a new place, leaving the narrator behind to take care of Mag. Rather than put her in a taxi, the narrator checks Mag's pulse and then leaves her on the apartment floor "to enjoy it" (41).
Chapters 1-4 Analysis
Breakfast at Tiffany's is written from the perspective of an unnamed narrator. Though Holly Golightly is the protagonist, the narrator's perspective frames her story. As such, the audience is introduced to Holly via the narrator. The rumor about her appearance in Africa, for example, hints at the mysterious and captivating personality who is initially absent from the novel. That this rumor then sends the narrator into a reverie illustrates the influence she has had on the narrator's life. Even after many years apart, the mere mention of Holly is enough to spin the narrator into an extended period of reflection. Joe Bell is similarly captivated by Holly. He admits that he searches for her whenever he walks the streets of New York City. By framing the story from the perspective of the narrator—rather than from the perspective of Holly or an objective, third-person narrator—the novel is able to convey the impact and influence that one woman has on the lives of those around her, to the point where she is still shaping their lives even in her absence.
The narrator as a character is something of a blank slate. He has no name in the story, nor any real plot of his own. His story operates in complete deference to Holly's story, in that her entrance into his life and her departure from his life are the most dramatically interesting things that happen to him. To some extent, the narrator is an extension of the author. Truman Capote was a young, aspiring author who moved to New York at a young age and socialized in similar circles to the ones described by the narrator in Breakfast at Tiffany's—the novella which shot him to stardom and made him one of the most famous American authors of his age. During his lifetime, Capote was famous for his depictions of New York high society as well as being one of the few openly gay figures in American public life. The novella (and the narrator) portrays similar themes: Holly makes reference to homosexuality, though often in a biased, disparaging manner, and her story is reputedly based on the lives of Capote's friends. Holly's complicated relationship to sex and society is observed by the narrator, in a similar way to Capote himself observing the lives of the New York elite with whom he socialized and depicted in his later work. The narrator as a blank canvas allows Capote to explore parts of his own life, while retaining the focus on Holly as the protagonist.
The party at Holly's apartment illustrates the control and agency she exerts over her life. Holly invites a large, diverse group of men. They all arrive at the party assuming that they will be alone with Holly. Their expectations of a private, romantic evening are confounded. The potential romantic suitors are confronted with the reality that they are not unique. Instead, they are one among many. They include military men, billionaires, and writers—a vast and varied selection of different types, forcing each of the men to reflect on why Holly might choose them over the others. In a patriarchal society in which men demonstrate their entitlement to women's bodies, the party is a subtle reminder from Holly to the men that she is very much in control of her love life. They exist in deference to her choices, rather than the other way around.
The narrator, relegated to the fringes of the party, is an example of how Holly exerts her agency over others. The narrator is ostensibly in control of the story but it is Holly who sets the tone and the forward momentum of the plot. The narrator is a detached observer, a stenographer for Holly's life. She even presents him with a fully formed metaphor in her discussion of Tiffany's, providing authorship of her own story to the extent that she is giving the apparent professional a literary device which he can use. Holly might present herself as demure and vulnerable but, as evidenced through her party and her relationship to the narrator, she is firmly in control of her life and her story.
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By Truman Capote
