Identity In Giovanni's Room By James Baldwin

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.

On August 2, 1924, in New York’s Harlem neighborhood James Author Baldwin was born. Known as one of the most influential black writers of the twentieth century, James Baldwin wrote on real issues that many people faced in the United States during his time. His writing dealt with the reality of life and tangled with everything from human sexuality, race, and poverty. He was a great reflection of his time and his short story, Sonny’s Blues shows many remarkable connections with his life issues and experiences.

Baldwin begins his own accounts of life in America with a job he had and lost several

James Baldwin, an African American author, grew up in Harlem, New York. Baldwin had no one to share his love for literature with. Baldwin’s father was opposed of him following the literature career path James Baldwin however, did receive support from the mayor and his English teacher. Baldwin abandoned his parents home at the age of 17, to settle into

James Baldwin is looked upon by many as the first of the great Black writers to have had a significant impact on the Civil Rights movement. James Baldwin work was very important to the civil rights movement and he was influenced by the civil rights movement. Born in 1924, Baldwin moved to Paris, France in his early twenties and it was from there that he did most of his important writing (Boyd). Baldwin began his writing career as a novelist and his personal goal was always to attain a status as a respected novelist but it was his contributions as an essayist that provided him with his greatest level of respect. Beginning in the mid-1950s and continuing through the 60s, Baldwin wrote a series of essays that were not only critically acclaimed but were also considered to have significant impact on the Civil Rights movement in the United States.

At the age of twenty-four he moved to Paris, France because of the disillusion by the American prejudice against blacks and gays. While living in Paris, France, Baldwin meet some of his favorite musicians like Miles Davis and Ray Charles. Baldwin also wrote several songs for them. In Miles Davis autobiography he

What if you couldn't change due to the conflict that you experienced in your life? What if your conflict would not change who you are as a person, and nothing would affect who you are going to be or who you want to be? But that is impossible so what if the idea Lincoln had about “An individual’s personal identity can change due to the conflict they experience in their context.” is true? You say: Abraham Lincoln once said “an individual’s person's identity can change due to the conflict they experience in their life.” You say: what this means is anything that a person might be going through can change who they are no matter how big it is or how small it is. Everything you go through changes who you are at least a little. Lincoln’s statement can be seen in the Giver by Los Lary and the Night by Elie Wiesel.

Connecting the Baldwin to the novel, Harlem; where the story takes place is Baldwin’s hometown. He was born in 1924 and he worked as a Pentecostal preacher during this teens. As a youth like Sonny in the novel, Baldwin also got himself involved in drugs, alcohol, violence, and crime. Baldwin graduated from high school in 1942 and he moved away from the influence of the church and found himself a job in New Jersey laying railroad track. This is when Baldwin first experienced racial prejudice for the first time in his life. He was denied service in restaurants and barred from the local bowling alleys. With many struggles and suffering, Baldwin lost his job and returned to this home town. In the story, Sonny lost both his parents. As for Baldwin, he lost his stepfather. To help support his mother and younger siblings, he work his hardest trying to feed the family and decided to become a writer.

“When, beneath the black mask, a human being begins to make himself felt one cannot escape a certain awful wonder as to what kind of human being it is.”(4). In his essay, “Stranger in the Village”, James Baldwin writes about the major differences that African Americans experience in Europe and America. Throughout the essay, Baldwin describes how the Europeans are naive about the black man. The outrage and amusement that Baldwin feels throughout his visit causes the overwhelming realization of the history of the African American.

The experiences of people living in ethnic enclaves have long attracted the attention of many scholars, journalists and writers because they want to understand how these communities are formed, and how the residents of these neighborhoods perceive their identity. This discussion included in this paper will be based on the analysis of literary and scholarly works. For instance, it is possible to refer to such authors as Nella Larsen and Yomme Chang who describe isolated ethnic communities. Furthermore, one can examine the novel Giovanni’s Room written by James Baldwin who examines the reasons why the representatives of the LGBT community can form their own enclaves. Overall, these people can be affected by different factors such as cultural segregation, poverty, linguistic barriers, homophobia, and so forth. Nevertheless, the critical issue is that they feel marginalized and isolated because some aspects of their identity are not accepted by the society. Moreover, these traits can be viewed as the signs of a certain deficiency.

In the play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare Shows us how mistaken identity can affect people in many ways and those who were affected all were affected from the main characters Olivia and Viola who is disguised as Cesario. Viola disguised herself as Cesario because her boat crashed and she washed ashore on Illyria, she had been with her brother, but he never washed ashore so she grieved him and to get over the grievance faster she got a job. But her brother Sebastian wasn’t really dead, he had just washed up on a different nearby island. These two caused the problems because Olivia is the prettiest lady in the land of Illyria and Cesario was taking Olivia’s heart even when “he” wasn’t trying to. Eventually Viola’s brother came to Illyria, which caused confusion to everyone because Sebastian

The play Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare shows us how mistaken identity can affect people in many ways. Two main characters, Olivia and Viola, disguised as Cesario, caused this confusion. Viola and her brother Sebastian were on a boat that crashed. Viola washed upon the shore of Illyria and thought her brother dead, but Sebastian wasn’t really dead, he had just washed up on a different nearby island. Wanting a job, Viola disguised herself as a man named Cesario, and Olivia fell in love with “him”. Eventually Viola’s brother came to Illyria, which caused confusion to everyone because Sebastian looked just like Cesario. Mistaken identity in Twelfth Night caused characters confusion and, in some cases, pain.

Baldwin is from New York City and goes to Switzerland knowing that he will not be treated right, but he goes anyway and to his surprise that was an understatement. The people of Switzerland acted toward Baldwin as someone who doesn’t belong due to his black nature. The Swiss were full of “astonishment, curiosity, amusement, and outrage” because they had never seen a black man before. Children where calling him names and he felt out of place, but even with all these feelings of being a stranger he still came back multiple times. Baldwin came back expected to feel more at home with the swiss but the suddenly realized he didn’t and just kept feeling like an outsider.

When David and Giovanni talked about sexuality, they referred to their own places. They used comparison between America and Europe, and talked about the difficulties they had to come through. However, David could not create his real sexual identity in the America, but also he couldn’t be sure of it even though he was in Europe. David tried not to love him since he thinks it is rightful him to fall in love with a woman, not a man. However, Giovanni did not afraid to present his affection towards David. Because Giovanni was from Italy, he thinks loving someone who has same sex as him is not a big deal.

Furthermore, James was an American expatriate moving around Europe before settling in Great Britain. Ozick explains that the United States remained on the writer’s mind even during his ramblings through a different continent (53). Born in New York, James retained some memories of his home country that he could convey with ink on paper. The majority of literary works of this author are set in Europe, but reminiscences of his childhood and adolescence could serve as a foundation for him to create truly American characters in truly American settings. However, the fact that James spent most of his adult years in Europe may suggest that the author could romanticize the America of his youth.