The Arts in NYC

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Trading Partners

While I came across reading Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, I found it rather interesting how Holly Golightly, Rusty, Mag and Jose tended to keep short relationships with one another.  At the beginning of the story, we are introduced to Holly and Rusty keeping such relations towards one another, whereas Jose and Mag are engaged. Eventually, Rusty marries Mag unexpectedly, leaving Holly and Jose in a close relationship.

When the headline of the newspaper revealing the marriage is shown to Jose, he states, "They do us a grand favor, Rusty and Mag. We laugh over it: how they think they break our hearts when all the time we want them to run away." This brought me to an interesting thought: do we really think that about people sometimes or do we just say it to make ourselves feel good? Considering that society tempts us to have certain relationships before we get married, in order to "test drive", we are led into either feeling regret or powerful. The fact that you can move on from a breakup will make you feel stronger, would it not? But on the other hand, if it tends to be difficult to forget, you might want to reconsider who your next partner is and not end up heartbroken once again.

The characters in Breakfast at Tiffany's are slightly different in character, being able to move on, or even trade partners of other couples. Does the world need more people who move on from one partner to another without regret?

-Mohammad Rattu