Infantile and Eerie Image of Miriam in Homonymous Story Truman Capote knew that his true calling was writing since he was a teenager. Due to that he was a very mediocre student at school, except of English class. Although his teachers thought very poor of him, he was popular among his classmates. He was known for his savviness and he had a talent to telling stories. Even walking around the block with Truman would be an adventure for them because of his flamboyant and whimsical personality (Schultz p.31). Knowing that he needs to have his stories published, Capote went to work in The New Yorker. He offered them his short stories but was continuously turned down. Eventually he quit and went to other magazines. Finally, his short story ‘Miriam’…show more content… Everybody knew him and he was invited to every party as a darling of Manhattan. He also threw a famous Black and White Ball which was named the party of the decade. While he was spending his time with elite he grew fond of a number of rich women who he called his ‘swans’ (Schultz p.84). Those were mostly wives of reach men, but what attracted Capote in them was their sense of style, beauty and charm. Though being a homosexual, Capote admired women, and they admired him as well. Among his swans were Gloria Guiness, Barbara Paley, C. Z. Guest, Slim Keith and many other beautiful women.
Inspired by his female friends, Capote wrote his famous novella Breakfast at Tiffany’s. It was an instant best-seller and all of his swans claimed that she was a prototype for Holly Golightly. The author himself answered that the image of Holly is an assembled image of a woman he adores. Holly Golightly with years became a representation of icon of stylish and liberated…show more content… It is an image of a liberated woman who is stylish, whimsical, emotionally open and eccentric. She is not like everybody else and that sometimes scares people off. As Capote himself tried to escape from poverty and despised lower class, all his heroines like beautiful and sophisticated things. Even if they are not from upper class, they act like they are. It also seems like Capote’s female characters can be identified with his own struggles and ambitious. On the other hand, it seems like these images are based on his mother, especially Holly Golightly. However, according to modern psychological theory a child can identify himself with paternal or maternal figure is the connection between them was lost which resulted in child’s psychological trauma (Freud and Riviere
