James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room Essay

Respondent has realized he is gay and has met a male companion who doesn’t reside with him presently, but someday might. Chastity testified that she feels weird around Respondent’s male companion. Psychologist, Dr.

David, the youngest was given away at the age of two. When his new family, the McDaniels took a look at him for the first time, he had a series amount of bed bug bites all over his body. Although he was raised in a very religious enviroment he still would visit his siblings ruth and milton and untie them from the barn everytime he would go back to his home. At the age of sixteen he ran away from his home and joined the military where he was able to move away from transforming into a rebellious teen. Many years after the return of David, he finally had the chance to reunite with his biological mother where he stated that when his mother saw him for a second time she did not show any sign of pitty nor regret she simply just stated “ you look just like your father.”

Everything David did that was courageous. Most importantly, he survived the Nazi’s horrible control, showing his mother had influenced him. Even though David had a difficult childhood, David’s mother helped him a great

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.

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.

Being the archetypal youth, David performs justice to his role as an archetype. While living with his uncle, David kept getting the idea that his uncle was trying to take his inheritance away from him. David’s uncle, Ebenezer Balfour, starts to prove David’s suspicion, when he sends David to the side of the house. Due to the lightning, David discovers that there are hardly any steps and he could have fallen and died. Uncle Ebenezer brushes the idea off of David’s mind, but continues to try to kill David in order to obtain the inheritance. As a second attempt, Uncle Ebenezer takes David along to see Hoseason at the Queen’s Ferry. Hoseason, partnered up with Ebenezer, takes David on the ship to “look around”. As soon as David gets on the ship, he is knocked unconscious and taken away. David realizes his uncle’s truth when he is taken away, “Help! Help! Murder! -and my uncle turned round where he was sitting and showed me a face full of cruelty and terror” (Stevenson 36). Being the archetypal youth, David has already gone through external enemies such as Ebenezer and Hoseason. Ebenezer tried to kill David by tricking him into climbing a dangerous stairway. When that fails, Ebenezer gets his nephew kidnapped and tries to arrange for David’s death through a group of seamen. It is David’s first battle against his uncle as he finds out what his uncle really is and what his uncle wants. Throughout his journey, David meets Alan who becomes his best friend and together, they fight the men on the ship. David explains the outcome of the fight as,

David's mother got worse and she began to think of new ways to torture David. David was one of a few brothers, but only he was targeted. The other brothers pretended he wasn't even there. There was only one person in the family that still loved David was his father. David’s father would fight for David and would protect him from the mother. But, he would always lose. Whenever David's father went to work, David would get beat. Dave became the scapegoat for his mother's mistakes. David became a slave of the house and did all the chores. If he did not finish his chores with an unreasonable time, he did not receive dinner. David was starved for three days at a time. Once, David got stabbed by his mother for not completing her dishes. Whenever David came back from school his mother forced him to throw up to see if he got any food at school. This happened every

He has a hard time reasoning his actions and

As Davis starts to tell about his life as a young boy in America, he lets us know about his mother dying far too young, and him being raised by his father and aunt. David's dad is stereotype of a man and their emotions. He and his son never have a close relationship. Even when David gets hurt in an accident, his father doesn't want him to cry. He wants him to be a man, a manly man and

In Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, David ponders over his past relationships. At the beginning of the novel, David looks back at his past and recounts a childhood experience with his friend Joey. This was David’s first intimate encounter with a boy, and it was through this experience that David learns that he is gay. This passage, which describes David’s thoughts after his night with Joey, reveals that David will not accept his sexuality because he is afraid of the power that his sexuality holds over him and of the future that he as a gay man will have in his society.

When controlling reality, everything is easier, such manipulation consistent of lies and deception. However, who in reality who is being deceived? The individuals believing the performance, or, believing the role you presume to have? Only for a moment will this version last causing reality to longer be contained. Rather now, reality is now confronting you, bringing into light the true enemy; the person you truly fear, yourself. Such internal struggle is seen within James Baldwin’s novel Giovanni’s Room, though Baldwin’s depiction of the protagonist David and his escape from America in hope to discover another identity that he associates with, even if the association goes against his internal desires. Baldwin’s use of self-deception and the internal struggle of the man within his novel demonstrates the resistance in accepting a homosexual lifestyle resulting in the manipulation of the self in order to transform such homosexual mentality into a heterosexual one. However, committing such change leads to a void within the self, creating pain and disappointment.

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.

isn’t fully aware that he is deceiving himself. He doesn’t fully realize what he is doing is wrong

is a fight just to survive for the next day . As a child David is taught a very harsh way of

role confusion stage. (Gerrig & Zimbardo, 2009) It is a coping mechanism that probably stems from his childhood in some way. This is just one example of how I am seeing the world from a more psychological perspective. I now try and form some theory about abnormal behavior rather that just shrugging it off. While I have not really had any experience with anyone with any very serious psychological conditions I see now that there is much more than meets the eye when it comes to their behavior. There is typically some sort of explanation that can be found in psychology and I think if everyone had a basic understanding of psychology they would understand the abnormal behavior a little better.