Breakfast at Tiffany's Themes & Symbolism

Breakfast at Tiffany's Significant Topics

The primary theme of Breakfast at Tiffany's is the search for connections with people and places; the outsider stands with nose pressed against the glass, wanting what is inside. As the narrator—now a New York insider—describes his first New York apartment, it is far from luxurious or elegant, but for him it is associated with personal freedom. Here he began his career as a writer, and here he became acquainted with Holly Golightly.

If he considers himself settled in his apartment, Holly is precisely the opposite; she is the perpetual outsider, marginally accepted, but never quite belonging.

The card on her door reads "Miss Holiday Golightly, Traveling," and her apartment is furnished with packing crates.

She refuses to "own" anything, even her cat, until she believes she is settled. The narrator cannot pinpoint her place of origin, and eventually he learns that she has...
(read more)