The birdcage that Holly gives the narrator is an embodiment of the kind of existence Holly fears most—namely, one in which she can’t exercise her personal freedom. When she gives the cage to him for Christmas, she makes him promise never to put a living thing inside of it, clearly feeling that the cage represents confinement and restriction. Interestingly enough, the narrator doesn’t see the cage in these terms, instead thinking of it as a beautiful object. It is, after all, a very large and ornamented birdcage. In this way, the birdcage stands for one of the fundamental differences between Holly and the narrator, which is that Holly’s fear of losing her freedom renders her unable to see—like the narrator can—that some kinds of stasis and domesticity can actually be quite beautiful. In this sense, the birdcage signifies the fraught relationship Holly has with her own idea of autonomy and freedom.
The Birdcage Symbol Timeline in Breakfast at Tiffany’s
