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Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

Freedom

Freedom from confinement is a repeated concern throughout the novel, highlighted in Holly’s flight from her marriage to Doc, her empathy for Sally, and her ultimate getaway in the book’s conclusion. Holly repeatedly shows concern for the physical freedom and autonomy of the creatures around her. Her insistence that the bird cage she gives to the narrator never be occupied, and her discomfort at zoos, show an ongoing projection of her anxieties about her freedom and safety onto the outside world. Capote also brings up the idea of psychological freedom, largely represented as the safety from influence from or dependence on others. This is another aspect of Holly’s personal aspirations of freedom and manifests as an unwillingness to foster emotional intimacy with the people she is close to, and a tendency to lash out if she feels her autonomy is in jeopardy. She is uncomfortable with the idea of making herself vulnerable by depending on others or allowing others to have too much information about her, or control over her. Holly prefers to control her own narrative: she will discuss certain aspects of her personal history and present life, but she deflects when asked questions outside of her script. 

Holly is wary of relying too heavily on others, even her cat, and has few close personal relationships. She considers the idea of “settling down” as being distant and fantastical. Even after the onset of her relationship and eventual engagement with José, she seems to keep him at arm’s length to some extent, saying that he is not her “ideal” man. The death of her brother – the person she cared for the most – triggers a violent breakdown in Holly that demonstrates a crack in the walls she puts up in all of her relationships, to avoid being affected so deeply by another person. The narrative seems to question whether it is better to be “trapped” by the emotional weight of one’s attachments or free from potential devastation. 

Authenticity

Capote makes a point of drawing attention to the way in which Holly has a strong sense of self and values her identity deeply, judging others who operate under false pretenses – sometimes to the point of hypocrisy. She claims that all “whores” are dishonest, and sets herself apart from them by claiming that any man she has had relationships with for need of money or food, she has at least tried to love in some way. In other parts of the book, she is often directly dishonest – lying about Mag Wildwood to make her seem less desirable to the men at her party, or later lying directly to Mag, claiming to be a lesbian when questioned about whether she slept with José while Mag and José were still together. She even changed the way she speaks, peppering her speech with French phrases to hide her humble Texas origins.

In a conversation with the narrator, Holly offers a thumbnail sketch of her idea of honesty, saying that she does not care about “law-type” honesty but that she’d “…rather have cancer than a dishonest heart.” It is up to the reader to decide whether Holly lives up to the ideal of honesty as she defines it. Despite her incongruous behavior, Holly seems to have clear ideas of what it means to stay authentic to one’s view of their self, and she genuinely cares about maintaining her own authenticity, stating that she wants to stay herself when she becomes rich and famous one day. Holly is a complex character and Capote uses her to explore authenticity through Holly’s own lens and the perspectives of the characters who interact with her. At the beginning of the story, the narrator has an elevated view of Holly and seems to believe in her view of herself, but calls her an “utter fake” after their falling out. The reader is encouraged to draw their own conclusions about Holly’s authenticity and to consider broader questions about what authenticity means to them.

Home

Holly repeatedly grapples with the concept of home and what it means to her. She and her brother Fred were orphaned young, and for much of the story, the only person she seems to associate with her idea of home is Fred. She moves through life trying to find a way to obtain both freedom and a sense of belonging, but she struggles to find one without sacrificing the other. She admits to dreaming of buying some land in Mexico to raise horses with Fred and imagines that she could name her cat if and only if she found a home. 

One of Holly’s greater struggles is feeling comfortable anywhere. She remarks at one point that she only feels calm when she is at Tiffany’s, the jewelry store, and continues to use Tiffany’s as a reference point for what a home should feel like. Following Fred’s death, Holly becomes obsessed with skills relating to homemaking to prepare for her life with José, as though desperately trying to fill the void left in her idea of a potential home. When Holly sets out to leave the country after being released on bail, she releases her cat in a dangerous neighborhood. Shortly afterward, she breaks down, finally realizing that the cat was truly hers and perhaps they were each other’s homes. The narrator, having promised Holly to find the cat, eventually spots him in the window of a well-kept house, seeming to have found his own home. The novella’s end leaves the reader to wonder whether Holly has found a home as well.

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