Giovanni’s Room is a classic tale of the life of a man, David, who is constantly running away from what he cannot run away from; himself. The characters in Giovanni’s Room expressed emptiness in themselves, because they were afraid to accept who they really are. This novel is an allusion collectively directed on people in America during the 1950s, because the only way to attain the “American Dream” successfully would be to acquire a wife, kids, a dog, and maybe even a hot, red, sports car that you only drive on Sundays after church. Because of American society’s strict policy on how to live your life, David felt outcasted, being a gay black man in the 1950s. He decided to flee America, and to flee from all of his problems, his past, and his future, only to run in to more turmoil that will eventually toss David to completely shut down from any human interaction, other than his caretaker.
“I think now that if I had had any intimation that the self I was going to find would turn out to be only the same self from which I had spent so much time in flight, I would have stayed home. But again, I think I knew, at the very bottom of my heart, exactly what I was doing when I went to France”(Baldwin 76).
This quote shows that David actually went to France knowing that he would eventually find himself at rock bottom, to abandon all hope, and reside, painfully, in one of the most deceivingly beautiful places in the world.
As part of the nature of Giovanni’s Room, gender played a large role on the outcome of each character’s lives. Gender had confused David since he was a little kid. When David was young, he had a friend named Joey. Joey and David had had a great day one day, but David felt something strange. For the first time in his life, David was sexually attracted to a male. He ended up laying with Joey, and stated that it was exhilarating, a love he had never felt before. However, the morning after, the guilt and horror of laying with another man haunted David.
“Perhaps it was because he looked so innocent lying there, with such perfect trust; perhaps it was because he was so much smaller than me; my own body suddenly seemed gross and crushing and the desire which was rising in me seemed monstrous. But, above all, I was suddenly afraid. It was borne in me: But Joey is a boy”(Baldwin 19).
This quote gives a detailed description of how David felt after that pivotal evening. from then on, David suffered from an identity crisis that would ruin his life. David would not grasp the fact that he was meant to be with a man, rather than a woman, because society has told him that that is not okay, that it is sinful, that you will be damned to Hell for all of eternity for being your true self. This pressure caused David to run somewhere where no one would ever follow him from American to; Paris. David continued to lie to himself when he met Hella. He felt as if he was under nobody’s watch when he was with her, that he had no care in the world, and found comfort in her love. However, Hella moved away to Spain for a little while, leaving David sad, and exposed. David ends up meeting Giovanni, his soon to be lover, at a gay bar, which Giovanni was bartending. David claims that he doesn’t know that it is a gay bar, only to try to keep his masculinity. Giovanni saw right through him, and the two engaged in a love affair not long after. Giovanni quickly fell in love with David, and had plans to stay with him forever. Hella moved back to Paris a year later, and David was quick to leave Giovanni, his true love, for a woman who thinks will hold him down, and keep him normal. shortly after, Giovanni is arrested for the murder of a good friend and his employer, who had fired him right before the murder, Guillame.
“I might, perhaps, be able to do something for Hella. I must have hoped that there would be something Hella could do for me. and this might have been possible if the days had not dragged by, for me, like days in prison. I could not get Giovanni out of my mind, I was at the mercy of the bulletins which sporadically arrived from Jacques”(Baldwin 323).
This quote directly shows that even though David is not imprisoned like Giovanni is, he is mentally imprisoned, because he feels as if he could have prevented Giovanni’s death row sentence by accepting who he really was, gender roles aside, and love a man who loves him back. David’s sexuality, combined with his gender, and the perpetual lies he had been telling himself, was a deadly creation for a man with no direction, no hope, no aspirations. It almost seems as if the only time David showed his true, unadulterated feelings for Giovanni is after Giovanni is sentenced to death, set with an execution date and all.
“No matter how it seems now, I must confess: I loved him. I do not think that I will ever love anyone like that again. And this might be a great relief if I did not also know that, when the knife has fallen, Giovanni, if he feels anything will feel relief”(Baldwin 231).
David finally admits he loves Giovanni after he is already gone, and never coming back, exposing David’s true identity crisis within.
The “American Dream” is referenced multiple times throughout Giovanni’s Room. In the novel, David and his wife, Hella, struggled with fitting the image of succeeding in the average “American Dream”. David only wants to lead his life, despite his feelings, with one thing that he never had as a child, which was stability. However, David’s desire to lead a normal, middle-class, blue collar life was overcome by his own nature. The outside pressure building on David by his father and the rest of society caused him to run away from his heart, what he knew would be right for him, to his brain, where he could try and think logically about the setup of his life moving into the future.
“The question he longed to ask was not in the letter and neither was the offer: Is it a woman, David? Bring her on home. I don’t care who she is. bring her on home and I’ll help you get set up. He could not risk this question because he could not have endured an answer in the negative. An answer in the negative would have revealed what strangers we had become”(Baldwin 189).
Not being from America and understanding these struggles, Giovanni is torn apart by David’s decision to leave him, not understanding why David would want to be normal if it meant torture on his heart. Giovanni and David were destined to not workout, because of both Giovanni’s and David’s dreams of the future. Giovanni dreamed about a lifetime with David, and really opened himself up to a dangerous person, one who was never mentally prepared for any type of relationship from the beginning. David almost lead Giovanni on, knowing that eventually, no matter how much David loved and cared for Giovanni, he would leave him for a woman, only to lead a lie.
““We have led different lives than you; things have happened to us there which have never happened here. Surely you can understand that this would make us a different people””(Baldwin 76).
Early on in the relationship, Giovanni claims David, as an American, is way different than himself. David first attacked his point in the previous quote, stating that American history has made Americans the way they are. Giovanni then consciously admits that he knows David is not like him.
““Ah! if it had only made you a different people!” he laughed. “But it seems to have turned you into another species. You are not, are you, on another planet? For I suppose that would explain everything.””(Baldwin 76).
Perhaps David is of another planet, one where he is isolated from human interaction, one where he is eternally alone. Giovanni only wanted to be happy, while David clung on by his fingertips to an idea of a normal, American life, which he knew in the back of his mind was absolutely unattainable due to his true identity.
Giovanni’s Room offers many gender-related messages related to the time period, which was when the civil rights movement was active. People of color, gender, and sexual orientation were discriminated by the white majority, treating people of equal value like dirt. In the beginning of Giovanni’s Room, David is first sexually involved with Joey as children. The morning after the encounter, David looks at Joey with disgust because he is a boy. This is a direct product of the social norms of America at the time. A little boy should never be afraid to follow his heart, and the fact that he internalized his actions this way shows the social impact of closed-minded people in America at that time. By constantly internalizing his feelings, David causes more pain and destruction to his heart that is irreparable, causing him to be lost and without a love for his life.
“Much has been written of love turning to hatred, of the heart growing cold with the death of love. It is a remarkable process. It is far more terrible than anything I have ever read about it, more terrible than anything I will ever be able to say”(Baldwin 324).
This sums up the aftermath of a lifetime of heartache, leaving David empty inside, all because he was scared of what people might think of him if they knew he was gay. Later in Giovanni’s Room, Jacques points something out about the human nature of love itself.
““Love him,” said Jacques, with vehemence, “love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters? And how long, at the best, can it last? since you are both men and still have everywhere to go?””(Baldwin 123).
Love in its pure form shows no gender, according to Jacques. A man should not strive to do what makes everyone happy; a man should strive to only make himself happy, to surround himself with love, acceptance, and support, in order to actually achieve true happiness during a lifetime.
Giovanni’s Room exposes what the effects of hatred in society can really do to a person’s mind over a period of time. This novel examines the lives of people, who were considered to lead lives outside of the social norm. These people were so far removed that eventually, the characters became incapable of truly loving another person. People like David, who are born different than the rest, try so hard to go with the flow; find a wife, settle down, and have kids. However, people like David just chasing the “American Dream” lose themselves in the process, forgetting about taking care of themselves, forgetting about paying attention to their own personal desires. If David would have just realized at any point in the book who he truly was, and accepted it, then he would have been happier than he could have ever imagined, with the man, Giovanni, who makes him happier than any woman had ever made him feel in David’s life. If people just accept others for who they are, no matter what race, gender, nationality, or sexual orientation, then the world would be a place full of love and understanding, instead of hate and bigotry.