David's Short Story Of A Gay Man

Throughout the entire movie we can see that David is the character that changes the most. David is portrayed as a nerdy and lazy teen that spends all his time watching the show pleasantville and eating junk food. The director shows us that his life at home is not really good and his only escape is while watching pleasantville. When he gets teleported into the show and town Pleasantville he’s stuck in the traditional way of living there, not changing anything and constantly worrying about his sister Jennifer altering the entire town. His fear of change sprouts with the worry of the disturbances his sister will create. In this circumstance the power of fear leads him to be controlling of the situations. We can see this how he tries to control the change when he finds out Mary Sue has been intimate with Skip and this creates a domino effect for

This has led to David doing very little for himself as he knows it will be done for him. “Interpretive theories argue that the most important influence on individuals’ behaviour is the behaviour of others towards them” Marsh et al (2009) P.72. By being in an environment where David isn’t required to do anything he has learned not to bother and everything will still be done for him.

David struggled for a long time with the trauma of his early childhood this made it hard for him to adjust to his new homes. He felt for a long time that the abuse he suffered was his fought and he was the cause of everything bad to happen to his family. He also longed for his family and battled with their not loving him. This lead David to begin having emotional out bust while in his secant foster home that only got worse after being sent to a therapist who used methods that where not helpful for a child David’s age and with his background. David

Giovanni’s room itself was significant because it represented a safe haven for David’s same sex desires and his metaphorical containment of these desires. For example,

David is an important character because he shows us the idea of acceptance. This is shown when David finds about Sophie’s sixth toe when she injured her ankle, and still wants to be her friend despite her being a deviation. In Wanuk - the place where David lives- deviations, like Sophie, are not accepted are human. David mentions multiple times that he knows being around Sophie is wrong but even though he knew he would be shunned for his actions, he remains Sophie’s friend anyway. Others are not as accepting as David, in fact, most people are quick to disown deviations or attempt to report or harm them. An example of this is when Allen sees Sophie’s six-toed footprint by the river then threatens to report what he saw which would mean Sophie’s capture, exile and/or death and possibly even her families too. This manner of thinking is shown again when the inspector says: “Although deviations may look like us in many ways, they can never really be human,” This, again, shows that deviations are frowned down upon by most of Wanuk. This conflict of acceptance reminds me of desegregation. People of colour would be treated less than human when they started peacefully protesting against their treatment and some were even killed. In fact, most of what is said reminds me of racism.

Although both the previous events did put David into an adverse position, the following experience changed David’s outlook on life for the better. Finally there was someone to tell David the true meaning of mankind, Uncle Axel. Uncle Axel tells him to be proud of his telepathic abilities, instead of praying to be what everyone else thinks is the true image. Uncle Axel also changes David's outlook on the true image of man, he explains to him how it's not one's physical features that define him, but what's in his mind.

The association of homosexuality with filth begins in childhood for David and most certainly in his relationship with his father. His identity confusion can be seen from early on as he mentions: “I was in full flight from him. I did not want him to know me. I did not want anyone to know me” (Baldwin 16). Indeed, David’s father install in him from the very beginning the notion of a white, heterosexual, masculine American male. He wants his son, whom he addresses as “Butch” to “grow up to be a man” (90) and not “a Sunday school teacher” (15). The “teacher” to which his father refers to can be understood as a threat to masculinity because “the teacher” is almost surely a woman and he wishes only a life of “butch” for his son. This notion surfaces

James Baldwin’s novel, Giovanni’s Room, follows the protagonist, David, as he embarks on a self-journey to establish an identity, personal and sexual, for himself. David is trapped in an American ideal of masculinity and homosexuality that does not define who he truly is, a homosexual male. David tries to pull away from his true desires and constantly struggles to embrace the heteronormative American life instead of being honest and accepting his true self. Throughout the entire novel, David associates darkness, filth and containment with homosexuality, queerness and different spaces that represent sin. Towards the end of the novel, at the end of his self-journey, David, although not literally contained or confined to Giovanni’s room or other dark spaces, does not truly resolve his issues with his true identity and internally will never truly be free.

David?s desires and feelings, felt foreign to him and he could not accept their validity. Instead of embracing his humanity, he ran from it in order to protect himself from his fears. Loneliness became the shelter which hid David?s insecurities. David?s internal journey continues on in Europe where he begins to associate with a group of homosexual men who are unable to find lasting satisfaction in any

Early in the novel, David is faced with his first conflict whereby he is forced to change his perspective on the ideas he was brought up on. David is playing on the beach when he meets Sophie. He quickly realizes that Sophie is a blasphemy after she gets stuck in between some rocks. She is then forced to remove her shoes to escape, which revealed her extra toe. Growing up, society taught David that deviations were dangerous monsters and that they are sent from the Devil. However, after having a wonderful afternoon with Sophie, he realizes that just because someone is a deviant, it does not actually mean they are a monster or dangerous. This is evident when David thought to himself: “Surely having one very small toe extra - well, two very small toes, because supposed there would be on to match on the other foot - surely that couldn’t be enough to make her ‘hateful in the sight of God…’? The ways of the world were very puzzling….” (Wyndham, 14). This shows that David has matured and started questioning the beliefs of the society, and his family, after his first-hand experience with a deviation. He also chose not to tell anyone about Sophie. He knew that it will put her and her family in danger of persecution. With this in mind, David

The reader can infer that David doesn't come from the conventional household due to the first stanza. David has a single mother that works, implying he probably doesn't get much attention and hasn't been able to have obedience enforced onto him. Based on Catacalos word choice, David appears to be a troubled child who is insubordinate. At school he is constantly reprimanded for not meet standardized educational requirements. After analyzing the poem, the reader understands that David isn't simply an instigator, but a child that needs assistance. David is illiterate, but tries to do his assignments. If he were an absolute troublemaker, he wouldn’t make an effort in

David fears the reaction society will have once revealing his true desire—to be with a man rather than a woman. Accepting ones sexual orientation is hard to do, even harder when such feelings occur outside the boundaries of the social norm. Giovanni’s Room takes place in 1924 New York, a period of time where adults began to settle into heteronormative lifestyles—male-female relationships, marriage, eventually creating a

Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Model First of all, David’s microsystem consisted of his mother, father and five brothers. His alienation from the family lead to his hating the relationships in his mesosystems. He explained that “Inside, [his] soul became so cold [he] hated everything.” (Pelzer, 1995, pp.133) His primary caregiver was the source of his torment and caused a strange love-hate relationship between him and his mother. David desperately sought to earn his mother’s love while at the same time cursed her

David's inauthenticity leaves him always feeling unsatisfied. He doesn't belong anywhere, not amongst heterosexual or homosexual. Everywhere he's a stranger. I truly believe that David knew deep down inside what needed to be done to finally become happy, but he also knew that this was a decision he could not live with. If there was such a thing as a pill to make him be the man his father wanted him to be, David would have taken it in a heartbeat. He wished to be apart of the American dream where he worked to support his good lady and their four delightful children as they lived happily ever after. Unfortunately, he did not

George Chauncey, author of Gay New York, argues that the gay male world was very apparent and integrated into the straight male world. Chauncey wrote, “To use the modern idiom the state built a closet in the 1930s and forced gay people to hide in it.” Stating that after prohibition was when the new social norms and restrictions were put on gay urban life.