Share your responses to Capote’s characters and to the ways they are treated by others.

In Capote's story, A Christmas Memory, friendship is an important theme, particularly, friendship between those who aren't accepted socially. Buddy and his friend are alienated by the other members of their family. Family members "have power over them, and frequently make them cry." Together, they find refuge in each other, a sense of safety, and as a result, they are often able to ignore the others and the way they are treated. Buddy's friend (actually his cousin) is "sixty-something," and yet, she is "still a child". Although technically an adult, she shares his innocence and view of the world as a whole. Through his cousin, Buddy comes to realize that the beauty of nature speaks to the presence of God..... that money is not the only way one measures "value". Over time, Buddy (not his real name) grows up, something that she will never do. Through her, he is able to recognize his own loss of innocence (growing up), but he is also able to acknowledge the definition of a true home..... the people, not the place, "Home is where my friend is, and there I never go." Even though they are separated, she remains his sense of "home".