Breakfast at Tiffany's Memory and the Past Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

"She's such a goddamn liar, maybe she don't know herself any more" (4.20).

Holly has spent so much time trying to leave behind Lulamae Barnes that it's possible she doesn't really know who she is – Holiday or Lulamae or anything else. This passage reveals Holly's deep desire to erase the past.

Quote #5

"Even though I kept telling him: But Doc, I'm not fourteen any more, and I'm not Lulamae. But the terrible part is (and I realized it while we were standing there) I am. I'm still stealing turkey eggs and running through a brier patch. Only now I call it having the mean reds" (11.5).

Despite her best efforts, Holly can't escape her past. A part of her will always be Lulamae Barnes from Texas.

Quote #6

"He's the only one would ever let me. Let me hug him on cold nights. I saw a place in Mexico. With horses. By the sea" (11.10).

When Holly's ties to the happy parts of her past disappear, it destroys her. Fred was her one constant link to a past she remembered fondly, and his death erases that for her in an instant.