Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a fictional movie and it was made in 1961. Audrey Hepburn played the leading role. She represents a young and very attractive woman. In the opening scene, we see her taking off a taxi, going to the window of a very famous jewelry shop, Tiffany’s, in New York.
She watches the jewelries admiringly while she has her breakfast, drinking her coffee and taking two bites of her scone. The woman character Holly Golightly (Audrey Hepburn) is a well-known person in New York high society. She can also enamor each man that she wants to.Holly, “a party-girl” has her breakfast in front of Tiffany’s in every morning after the nights she spent with the men older than her and rich.
When we base some scenes on which she gets up late and made-up we can estimate that she goes out every single night and she is unhappy at all. Even if it doesn’t shown that she goes out every night, we can interpret the opening scene in this way. Holly, having lonely life in her simple apartment, meets Paul Varjak who moves to her next door. These two characters, who like each other, have common characteristics.The way they spend life and earn money is the same. Both of them are paid of spending time with opposite-sex.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s covers the theme of belonging. Many facts in the movie carry a symbolic meaning. Those symbols provide us to know their moods. Although it is predicted that Holly lives an isolated life, it is seen that she is not actually alone in many scenes.
She hosts parties in her apartment and she goes out wit different men. Her dresses, glamour jewelries, and the way she holds a glass and smokes show us that she tries to adapt herself to the high society life.Another important issue in the movie is that Holly escorts for wealthy men for the sake of her soldier brother, also a ghost character in the movie, Fred. In a scene, she says she needs money to live with him after Fred comes back from military. This line indicates she has a daydreamer personality and she plans for the future. Holly has childish attitudes and ideas underlying her appearance.
While she mentions about the life that she adores, she addresses the men she hangs together as a “rat”. The other impressive scene is that when Paul starts to type his new novella about Holly she sings the songs “Moon River”.There is a turning point in this movie. Holly’s husband, whom she left years ago, comes into view to say Holly to goes back.
It’s clear to estimate that she rejects her past and she is a radical person. However, she gets his brother’s death news. Despite, she covers the depressive period in a short time. Then she plans to get married to a Brazilian man. This shows up her admiration to being rich, by living off men. Before Holly leaves New York to where she adores, she and Paul decide to do something they have not done before.
That day, Holly goes back to her past.She decides to steal something as she used to do in the past and here, we can understand that Holly misses her past dreadfully. In addition to the plot, Holly is taken into the custody because of powder room. At those times, powder room meant cocaine. Brazilian man, Jose, leaves her because he doesn’t want his prestige to fall down. We may interfere that the leading character in the movie, Holly Golightly, has drug habit.
Paul is always around her, whenever she has rough times, Paul helps her, he really falls in love with her but Holly is a disregardful person.When Paul confesses his love to Holly he also makes her realize her weakness and he rubs in it. We can understand in last lines in a taxi scene, when Paul confesses his love, Holly suppresses her feelings by saying “No, people don’t belong to people. ” “I’ll never let anybody put me in a cage. ” From young lady’s quote, it can be seen that she is also keen on her freedom. After all, Paul decides to leave her.
Holly sees that she has nobody no longer. She decides to go after him, and in closing scene of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, the most significant icon is Holly’s nameless cat.It is also assumed that the nameless cat is one of the major characters of the movie as well. Holly might not want the cat to belong to anybody or anything, that’s why she doesn’t give even a name to the cat. At the end of the film, Audrey Hepburn has exhibited brilliant acting of all times.
She gives message of being aware of people around us. Film has happy-end and it deserves to be seen many more times. The second women character being scrutinized is Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank), an English teacher in a school, which has put an integration plan in place.The movie “Freedom Writers” is based on a true story. Erin is a young and idealistic teacher.
She believes to change the gang students. She also tries to integrate them into others from different racial groups. On the other hand, beside of the students, she is in conflict with department head, her father and her husband as well. The reason of her confliction with his father is that he doesn’t want her to be a teacher. This situation shows us Erin has a strong personality and the reason underlying of standing against Margaret is that she doesn’t believe the students will integrate into.In opposition to Margaret, Erin strongly believes the school is the most appropriate place to struggle.
Many historical events are also discussed in the movie such as Holocaust. She achieves to attract her students’ attentions. Although the students claim that they experience the racism, Erin proves her egalitarian personality by saying “I am a teacher. No matter what color I am”. She never gives up and helps them find their common grounds by making them play games with the aim of drawing their attention.
Apart from all, she always has her own, unique teaching methods.She wants her students to write about their experiences on their diaries while they read Anne Frank’s diary. She begins to change them. She finds the opportunity to analyze them thanks to those diaries.
She takes them to the museums just to encourage them to live in peace in the society. She also works in two part time jobs on the purpose of buying them more books because she runs into controversy with Margaret refusing to let the students use the library books in case they damage them. This is another proof supporting her maternal characteristic.She raises the students’ consciousness in most scenes and the most charming one is that she teaches a student to take his hat off in the presence of a dead child’s photo, as respect. She ensures them to be aware of the importance of writing and reading. Erin gains her father’s appreciation in time.
After all, we can understand as a whole, Erin is an ambitious teacher. Students and Erin, being in the news, with her success, collect their diaries into a book, and name it as “Freedom Writers”. The movie is appropriate for teenagers, students and parents to become conscious.It is a notable example on how to live together with people having different point of view and backgrounds in life. When these two women characters of chosen works are compared and associated with each other, their common and mostly opposite sides can be demonstrated. While Holly Golightly is indecisive, selfish, dreamer, alone, depressive and sordid woman, Erin Gruwell is maternal, realist, idealist, self-confident and strong willed.
The only common ground barely related to each other is their ambition.However, their aims are totally different with regard to being ambitious. Holly has a desire of riches and she tries every way to reach to money. Erin Gruwell also tries to every way but her major aim is to be useful for the society. We can see that even if they have a strong similarity, the reason underlying their ambitious distinguishes them from each other. Whatever the effects of the characters in movies are, we find basic similarities to our lives and ourselves.
We can replace ourselves as the characters broadly correspond to us.
