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Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop and inform the text's major themes.

Birds 

Holly’s connection to birds is alluded to repeatedly throughout the novella, especially in reference to Holly and her caretaker and husband from a past life, Doc Golightly. Holly mentions that Doc nursed a wild hawk back to health when it was fragile and vulnerable. This vulnerability is also found in Holly in her younger years, one she is fervently trying to avoid in the present. Doc also tamed a crow and gave it to her – and when Holly ran away, the crow also fled, a parallel between the two “wild things.” Holly has been compared to birds by Doc, who calls her “talky as a jaybird,” but she also identifies with them herself. She is consistently distressed by the idea of a bird in a cage and seeks freedom from confinement herself, both from her early marriage and from the threat of imprisonment at the end of the novella. Birds are used to represent Holly’s fear of confinement and desire for freedom.

Names

Capote makes many references to identity and how it can be captured in a name. Holly Golightly is a name entirely changed from the character’s birth name (Lulamae Barnes), and the alias reflects a chosen identity. Golightly is a name she keeps from her former marriage to Doc Golightly, and Holly is a first name she chooses after running away from it.  It is revealed when the narrator reads the card on Holly’s mailbox that her full first name is Holiday, evoking her identity as a wanderer at heart. The intentionality of her name factors into Holly’s sense of self and the question of her authenticity. Holly maintains a certain level of control over the identities of those around her as well. The reader never learns the narrator’s name because she never uses it, instead opting to call him by her brother Fred’s name. The lack of identification emphasizes his distance from her, the lack of importance he places in himself in the narrative, and his capacity to act as a stand-in for the reader. The other unnamed character is the cat that lives with Holly, who is never given a name because she sees the act of naming the cat as an acknowledgement of the attachment and dependency they share. To name him would make him part of her home, demonstrating a link between the ideas of identity and belonging.

High Society

Aspects of high society consistently color Holly’s worldviews and affect the story through her connections to aspiring socialites. Holly moves among New York’s social climbers and relies on the semi-wealthy men who value her company for sustaining her livelihood. Many of her friends come from this world, including Mag and Rusty, whom Capote uses as examples to critique the superficiality of societal obsession with status and reputation, even as Holly falls victim to some of the same vices. Even José Ybarra-Jaegar, the most legitimately high-status person Holly has connections with, turns out to value his status more than his relationship with her when he leaves Holly after she is arrested. Holly has, however, expressed strong intention to not be changed by the world of wealth and fame – which she is confident she will achieve “at some point.” Still, the most idyllic place she can imagine is Tiffany’s, a large and expensive jewelry store that epitomizes the glamorous excess of the world of high society. This poses further questions about Holly’s authenticity in relation to the world she occupies.

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