LBGTQ Community To Love And Oppression

Paul also openly criticizes conformity frequently throughout the story. Paul’s criticisms can be seen in his detailed observations of people and their routines. However, none of these criticisms compare to Paul’s hate for his home on Cordelia Street. Cather describes Cordeila Street, noting that all the houses are identical, as well as its inhabitants. Following the description of the street, Cather describes Paul’s hatred for his mediocrity plagued home is expressed: “Paul never went up Cordelia Street without a shudder of loathing… he approached it to-night with the nerveless sense of defeat, the hopeless feeling of sinking back forever into ugliness and commonness that he had always had when he came home”(Pg. 5). Later on in the story, while Paul is in New York and is contemplating his fear of being reprimanded for his actions, he constantly reminds himself of the painful existence that awaits him on Cordelia Street: “It was to be worse than jail, even; the tepid waters of Cordelia Street were to close over him finally and forever. The grey monotony stretched before him in hopeless, unrelieved years”(Pg. 13). Cather seems to use Cordiela street as a all-encompassing metaphor for conformist society; and Paul’s individuality and hate for Cordiela Street serves as the contrasting element, in turn becoming the most

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

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.

In James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Hella struggles with a way to experience her femininity without defining herself in relation to men. She is David’s fiancée who is away in Spain for most of the novel. After returning to David, Hella experiences a yearning both for home and to become what she feels is a real woman, which she thinks that only David can provide her. Relying on David to give her the feeling of being a woman, Hella writes to David frequently about what she feels their life together would be like. For Hella, the feeling of home is inexplicably tied to being a woman and the vulnerability she feels when she is with David, or with a man.

With his whimsical, eccentric, and somewhat selfish outlook on life, every reader could relate—in one way or another—to Willa Cather’s protagonist in “Paul’s Case.” Paul, who just believed he was misunderstood, was continuously perceived as diverse and bizarre by his peers, neighbors, and even his own father. By not taking any interest in the dull, drab, and dim everyday life of the average person in Pittsburgh, Paul was consistently criticized and belittled by others. Along with not enjoying the typical endeavors as the average “normal” boy his age, Paul also grew up without a mother; therefore, Paul really did not receive any kind of parental love or affection. To add to it all, Willa Cather stereotypically portrayed Paul as being homosexual throughout the entire story.

In James Baldwin’s novel Giovanni’s Room, a character named David struggles to accept homosexuality as his true identity. One of the ways this is portrayed is through the impacts of his father and his deceased mother. David’s father has an ideal picture of how he wants David to turn out and that is a tough and masculine man. The pressure David feels from this vision of his father’s forces him to deny his homosexuality. David’s father is the symbol of the fuel to his fire, whereas his mother symbolizes the inescapable hold his true identity has on him.

        Willa Cather provides insights to how Paul wants to feel important in his life instead of being an outsider in society. In his job, Paul works as an usher in Carnegie Hall. The narrator states,”As the house filled, he grew more and more vivacious and animated, and the color came to his cheeks and lips. It was very much as though this were a great reception and Paul were the host.” (Cather 13). The narrator shows the reader how Paul feels more important as he helps people in the theater. It is as if the sight of people filling the room and needing Paul’s help breathes life into Paul. Author E.K. Brown writes, “He felt the pull of New York...to feel himself in the center of “the plot of all dreams”...”(Brown 1). Brown uses this

Societies are often placing strict rules and expectations for individuals to conform to, and it is up to the individual to follow these rules or not. Willa Cather displays the dark and true nature of the motivations that can direct an individual’s course of action through the arrogant and aloof high school student Paul, in “Paul’s Case”, and where Paul finds the motivation to escape his claustrophobic home in Cordelia Street. Paul initially feels imprisoned and unhappy with his life in Cordelia Street, so he seeks to escape; however, when Paul is met with the realization that he can no longer run away from his problems, he figures that the only solution is suicide.

The last Sunday Paul was home, he sat on the stoop outside his house. This was just as the others on Cordelia Street had done, no surprise there. While Paul sat there, his father was talking to a younger man who had a child with him. “He happened to be the young man who was daily held up to Paul as a model, and after whom it was his father's dearest hope that he would pattern,” Paul could not fathom the thought of being like this man (5). This man was looked up to on Cordelia Street because the neighbors believed he was a young man with a future. Paul, however, had no appeal to this life the man was living. Paul aspired to be wealthy, have famous friends, and to live in a city where there was no normalcy. Could Pittsburgh give those things to

Unaware of what Paul really desires, his father already has a goal in mind for his life. However, the role model his father has chosen as the embodiment of Paul’s future repulses him. While Paul’s paragon works his way to success, Paul has “no mind for the cash-boy stage” and only wants the triumph of wealth. His father’s aspirations cause Paul to believe he is a disappointment, which is seen when he entertains himself with the idea of his father wishing him dead. Because they amplify Paul’s sensation of drowning in the monotonous Cordelia Street, Paul tries often to escape the nightmare of his father’s dreams. To Paul, reality is just a bad dream he wants to wake up from. Searching for freedom, Paul tries to separate himself from the life of Cordelia Street even in the smallest things, like using violet water to get rid of the kitchen odours on his hands. At places like Carnegie Hall and the theatre, Paul is able to shake off the “lethargy of [the] deadening days” at home and school. In his false reality, Paul surrounds himself with artificial beauty because to him “the natural nearly always [wear] the guise of ugliness.” This is why wealth and luxury are so appealing to him - they are unnatural to him. Every rehearsal he attends allows his imagination to take over and provide temporary relief from his conditions. However, each brief escape increases the ghastliness of his

Gay and Lesbian research is inquiry that focuses on the lives, experiences, and meanings of those who are socially identified as lesbians; this identity label is temporal, culturally determined, and socially constructed. Today, lesbian refers to women who are primarily sexually and romantically attracted to other women. Lesbian research is indebted to the advances and insights of feminism, a movement for social justice centered on women. Reflecting on this historic connection, lesbian research has attempted to redress the imbalance of attention to dominant groups in traditional

James Baldwin’s novel “Giovanni’s Room” deals with the principal character David, and his struggle to affiliate him self with who he really is as a homosexual. Specifically the book focuses on David’s denial of his relationship with another man, Giovanni, as well as the ideas of male dominance and masculine identity.

Throughout the story, Cather emphasizes Paul’s temperament and his struggle with his own psyche, and how this ultimately leads him to his death. The combination of his home life, possible neurodivergence, and addiction to artificial worlds are all significant reasons for Paul’s escape. To Paul, Cordelia Street is a claustrophobic prison; he hates the monotonous, stagnant nature of his home. Even simply walking down Cordelia Street was enough to fill Paul with loathing and a “nerveless sense of defeat”. His home life is miserable and Paul despises having to return every day, when one’s home should be the place where one finds solace and warmth. He finds it difficult to live in such a mundane neighbourhood, especially because of his eccentric personality and interests. As a result of Asperger’s, Paul finds it hard to communicate with others, which makes him more isolated. Again, he also comes off as self-absorbed. After Paul’s encounter with his teachers in the beginning of the story, the point of view abruptly shifts to focus very closely on Paul. This gives the feeling of being absorbed in Paul’s thoughts, which is what Paul does to himself. Because of his idealization of the arts and fantasies, Paul’s real life only becomes more miserable. Music and theatre make him happy, but his addiction to art has become his only source of happiness, which becomes his main motive for running away to New York.

The struggle is real for blacks. Things must suck even more for women. Shoot, think about how much life blows for gays. Now imagine being all three. For now, we’ll call this the good ole triple negative. Gay, black, and female are the least benefitted sexual identities, ethnicities, and genders. Benefits in this context refer to rights and privileges (equal pay and representation) in society compared to the opposite: straight white male. A big chuck of this is a result of our (me, identifying as a triple negative) position in society, unseen and when seen subordinate to our male counterparts. This invisibility isn’t by chance and if one looks hard enough, figuratively speaking, these absences become almost obvious. There is a clear downfall

It takes a bit of trial and error to do this. Leo met one of the girls and through this trial he learned about himself. He learned where he was and who he was, and that he did not love her. After this, he found the one that he did love. This represents that one must know and love themselves before then can love someone else. For how can one be expected to know how to love another without knowing how to love him or her self? Leo discovered where he was in his relationship with God through this experience. All relationships are learning experiences preparing the person for the true thing. When Leo discovered the one he wanted, Salzman refused to let him have her because she was his daughter, and he considered her unfit for a Rabbi. This only infuriated Leo and made him want her more. She was the opposite of him, had lived a more sinful, less protected life, and this intrigued him. Many times the one out of reach or completely opposite is the one that is meant to be. Leo ended up getting this woman, but the story doesn’t tell how they’re relationship ended. From the point of infatuation to love, many things can happen, but if it is the right person, love will come. Love, a complicated and emotional subject is played with throughout life. A constant search for