Friendship is a complicated thing. It can be wonderful and fulfilling and it can also be painful and devastating. The friendships in this novel are, for the most part, superficial and are often based on what one person can get from another. But every once in a while true friendship develops and we notice this even more because of how anomalous it is. These friendships represent the particularly interesting relationships in Breakfast at Tiffany's because they allow us to see instances of loyalty, tenderness, and caring in the midst of a world that seems to be lacking these things.
Questions About Friendship
- Are Holly and the narrator really friends by the end of the novel?
- Do Holly's friends function as her family, in some way?
- Does friendship depend on a sense of loyalty in the novel?
Chew on This
We never see an instance of true friendship in the novel. Most of the characters just want something from their so-called friends.
Joe Bell, the narrator, and O.J. Berman display actual qualities of a friend when it comes to Holly.