Modern readers are likely to consider Breakfast at Tiffany's dated. The outlaws resemble the cast of the musical Guys and Dolls more than any contemporary Mafia figures. Likewise, the attitude of Holly Golightly seems to reflect those of the 1950s beat writers and the 1960s flower children. The 1950s' greater reticence in dealing with sexual topics is also very much in evidence. In general, then, readers may choose to treat the novel as a mirror of its cultural milieu.

1. One of the most ambiguous elements in the novel is the narrator's relationship with Holly. Initially she treats him as a surrogate brother, and in some ways that relationship is maintained throughout the novel, but Joe Bell suggests that the narrator too must have harbored sexual fantasies about her, and the narrator himself suggests that he has written the novel in order to sort out his feelings...