Giovanni's Room Analysis

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.

young David picks up a book called “An Outline of History” by H. G. Wells. After he read Wells

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.

David must pretend, not just for the remainder of the novel, but for the next forty years, to be ignorant of Frank’s crimes, and much of what is happening because his parents do not realise that he has

David spends the first two chapters eavesdropping into the conversations of his mother and father. This way of finding information in itself is very juvenile but is the only way. Because of the eavesdropping, the information David hears is interfered by his childish ways for example “part of me said to leave, get away, run now before it’s too late before you hear something you can’t unhear.” This quote displays David’s naïve thinking. The naivety of David is also shown though his feeling towards his Uncle Frank, he sees Frank as the charming, town doctor and loving uncle. In David’s eyes, Frank can do no wrong, and when he does, he along with his father does not believe the allegations, “why are you telling me this” “are you telling me this because I’m Frank’s brother? Because I’m your husband? Because I’m Maries employer? He paused “or because I’m the

The novel begins with David standing at his window watching his reflection in the darkening window pane. There is a repetition of the words still and same. This is a self-reflection of himself as David is staring into his dark past where he is longing to move away from his lost identity. David is in denial with his manhood and he flees to France and leaves behind his life in America to attempt to leave the issues with his sexuality back home. At one point, David says that “perhaps home is not a place, but simply an irrevocable condition” (92). David realizes the internal, emotional state rather than just the physical

The description of their relationship draws on the language of navigation and discovery. She is seen as “undiscovered country” p.32 and David is a “battered vessel”. The narrator suggests there is no map for love

Both these things results in David asking many questions. David takes an interest in this girl and does many things to meet her. He goes out of his way just to make time for her, but the question is why. It could be that he truly likes her, however if this is true then how come this is so sudden. He has hated deviations his

At the age of 5 years old, not only did he began to take showers with his father, but when they went to the beach club, his mother bathed him in the shower in the presence of other naked women. By the age of 6 years old, David noticed the power men had over women, “when a male entered the women’s side of the bathhouse, all the women shrieked”. (Gale Biography). At the age of 7 and 8 years old, he experienced a series of head accidents. First, he was hit by a car and suffered head injuries. A few months later he ran into a wall and again suffered head injuries. Then he was hit in the head with a pipe and received a four inch gash in the forehead. Believing his natural mother died while giving birth to him was the source of intense guilt, and anger inside David. His size and appearance did not help matters. He was larger than most kids his age and not particularly attractive, which he was teased by his classmates. His parents were not social people, and David followed in that path, developing a reputation for being a loner. At the age of 14 years old David became very depressed after his adoptive mother Pearl, died from breast cancer. He viewed his mother’s death as a monster plot designed to destroy him. (Gale Biography). He began to fail in school and began an infatuation with petty larceny and pyromania. He sets fires,

Sophie allows for doubt to pierce its way into David’s life for the first time. At the start of the novel, when David first meets Sophie, he gets an insight into a deviant’s life. She has proven to be the first blow to efficiently impact David’s thoughts and make him question the authenticity of his society’s belief system. “It is hind-sight that enables me to fix that as the day when my first small doubts started to germinate.”

This eventually changed David so that he no longer felt that he “didn’t fit his ideal of what he should be.” David’s knowledge of his Uncle Frank’s crimes, especially the murder of Little Marie Soldier, also permanently changed his life, as after that he could no loner think about Frank in the same way. Originally, David expressed great admiration for his uncle, “the war hero,” saying that compared to his father, who was impressive, was everything that his father was “and more.” Conversely, after the revelation of Frank’s crimes, David could no longer “continue thinking” of Uncle Frank “the way he always had,” saying that the “charming, affable Uncle Frank was gone for good.” While this change was dramatic, the greatest change that irretrievably changed David’s life was the death of his once beloved Uncle Frank.

David presents himself as a wayward lost soul caught in a shaky tower. Growing up, David never truly had a childhood. His parents argued to the point of physical fights, his dad would ridicule and beat him in drunken rage, and for the most part this was how life was. David lived in fear waking up the next morning to the next challenge or emotional trigger. Little did David know, the triggers of his dad yelling down the hall activated more than just a startle response and negative thoughts of worthlessness and feeling unloved and unwanted leading to “toughening up” while he was hit (Beck & Beck, 2011).

This is when Giovanni makes his appearance. He is handsome and Italian and even though David refuses to admit it, he is very attracted to this young, dark man. After a while he ends up in his bedroom where he stays for several weeks. That he is having a homosexual affair is tearing on David, and he despises Giovanni as well as he loves him. In the book, David is saying to him self: ‘The beast which Giovanni awakened in me would never go to sleep again; but one day I would not be with Giovanni anymore'. When he finds joy in Giovanni's room, it quickly becomes clear that it cannot last, and that love does not always conquer all, and that it actually stands no chance against fear and self-delusion. He is fighting a constant battle against something he can't remove or ignore.

Though David represents a seemingly common boy at the time, he has several qualities that make him stand out. However, these character traits are never simply told to us. Instead, the implied author uses David’s actions, decisions, and beliefs to

A recurring theme in the character of David Bell is his inflated opinion of himself. Chapter Two begins with David stating, “I was an extremely handsome young man” (DeLillo 2.11). David continues to describe his appearance in an almost scientific manner that would appear to be simply a factual statement. When David equates his relationship with his mirror as therapeutic, however, we see how much he stakes his opinion of himself on the way he looks. “I was blue-eyed David Bell. Obviously my life depended on this fact” (DeLillo 2.11).