Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory

Truman Capote’s A Christmas Memory

Truman Capote’s story A Christmas Memory, is about Capote’s childhood memory of a particular holiday season and how he enjoyed that moment in time with a special friend. Capote is illustrated by the main character, Buddy. Buddy and his distant cousin have a bonding friendship and tell of their exploits during that Christmas. They pick out a very special Christmas tree, make each other presents, and make fruitcakes.

Capote was born in New Orleans as the son of a salesman and a 16-year-old beauty queen. His father worked as a clerk for a steamboat company. He never stayed with any job for long, and was always leaving home in search of new opportunities. This put a strain on his parent’s marriage, which eventually led to divorce when he was four. Young Capote was brought up in Monroeville, Alabama. The story is also set in Monroeville. He lived some years with relatives, one of which is his cousin who became the model for several of his novels, stories, and plays. When his mother married again to a rich businessman, Capote moved to New York, and adopted his stepfather's surname. The story starts in a kitchen in a rural community in the Deep South, during the Depression in the 1930’s. The main characters through out the story are Buddy and his cousin. They are characterized indirectly and directly and are both stationary characters because they really do not change from the beginning to the end of the story. The story is written in the first person narrative. The narrator is a little boy talking about his own life. An example that exemplifies the first person narrative is "the person to whom she is speaking is myself. I am seven; she is sixty-something. We are each other’s best frie...

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... can still find happiness. He also uses Cousin to further emphasize this idea of appreciating the things you have and realizing that the simple events in our life are the ones that have a lasting impression. Capote himself has used Buddy and Cousin to tell the story of his own life and how his own simple memories have shaped his life.

"Once a car stops and the rich mill owner’s lazy wife leans out of the car and whines: "Giveya twobits cash for that old tree." Ordinarily my friend is afraid of saying no; but on this occasion she shakes her head. "Goodness woman you can get another one." In answer my friend gently reflects: I doubt it. There’s never two of anything."
"That is why walking across a school campus on this particular December morning I keep searching the sky. As if I expected to see, rather like hearts, a lost pair of kites hurrying toward heaven."