Breakfast at Tiffany’s is an oldie but definitely a goodie
I’ve been looking back at the movies that I loved and adored. These films brought me to tears and reminded me of the magic that filmmakers can create. They let me daydream for a while with the fantasy that they bring. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is definitely one of those films that always come to mind.
It endures the test of time and is even enjoyed by younger generations. The movie didn’t try too hard to become a blockbuster success. It didn’t even conform to cultural norms. The story is just really concerned with being itself. It’s a simple old film. However, it gives a lot of life lessons that everyone can relate to.
Lessons and realizations I learned from watching Breakfast at Tiffany’s
We are Holly.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s revolves around a young woman named Holly Golightly. Her ensemble made out of a fitted black dress, sunglasses, pearls, and a tiara has become a symbol of timeless beauty and sophistication. She is a socialite who gazes in the windows of Tiffany’s every morning as she ate her choice of breakfast. We can just assume that she dreams of the type of life she would want to have just to shop there regularly.
Holly wanted more out of the life she had and went out to find out exactly what her new life would consist of. She loved herself and her brother enough to create a better life for herself and wanted to find a way to help her younger brother, whom she loved more than anything. She’s living independently in Manhattan, trying to make a way for herself in hopes that she and her brother can be free from their old life for good.
Most of us are like Holly Golightly. She is particularly relatable since so many of us leave for college at eighteen or nineteen, sometimes even younger, in an attempt to create a future for ourselves that will sustain us for the rest of our lives. However, while doing this, we frequently disregard what will make us happy and instead focus on our ability to earn enough money.
Holly achieves this by focusing solely on finding a wealthy man to marry, disregarding her own happiness and chances of finding true love, and therefore emotionally disconnecting. This is, in my opinion, quite relevant, especially in the present day. She’s like most of us. In pursuit of finding a place where we and things go together, a place like Tiffany’s.
We can’t have it all at once.
Holly shows us that it is okay to not have it all together all at once because nobody has it all together! No couch in your home? It’s no issue. Use anything creative to create simple seating, like a sawed-off bathtub. Using your storage creatively is another option. Put your ballerina flats in the refrigerator if you don’t have much room to store them at home. You’ll not only have a space for your shoes, but also a cool pair! It’s also not an issue to have a small kitchen, especially if you appear to live off milk served in champagne coupes. Besides, milk in a champagne coupe is much more elegant than a tossed pint glass.
We all experience frustration from time to time because we feel that at a certain age, we should have accomplished particular goals or worked out our lives. We will occasionally look at others and see that they are accomplishing far more than we are. Our society instilled in us the notion that by the time we turned 25, we should already be planning our marriage, have a home and have a secure career.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s, however, shows that it’s okay to not have control of your life by the time you turn 25. Using a wine glass to sip milk rather than wine is acceptable. That it’s okay to improvise a bathtub into a couch. The fact that we are putting up a lot of effort to accomplish our goals is what really matters.
What’s your remedy for the Mean Reds?
In the movie, Holly mentioned Mean Reds. She described it as a horrible thing. It’s like the blues that you refer to when you’re sad. Mean reds, on the other hand, refer to the feeling you get when you’re scared but don’t know what you’re scared of.
The most important life lesson I learned from Breakfast at Tiffany’s is that you actually don’t need to look for a remedy for the mean reds. As someone in my twenties, entering adulthood and experiencing an existential crisis, changes, and a whole lot more, it is tough. Being in your twenties is walking on a path full of uncertainties and it is so scary.
There will be days when you will get angry or afraid, and you won’t be able to pin down exactly what’s bothering you. Whether it is reading a good book, ordering a pizza, watching a movie, or going to your favorite place, life’s better when you know exactly what to do when the Mean Reds attack. And in her case, it’s eating breakfast or window shopping at Tiffany’s.
So, what are you waiting for? Watch Breakfast at Tiffany’s now and let us know what lessons you got from it on the comments section below!
