An Analysis of the Importance of Setting in James Baldwins Giovannis Room - Essay Example

An Analysis of the Importance of Setting In James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room The book Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin takes place in post World War II Paris and concerns itself with the romantic entanglements of the narrator, David. Baldwin develops a detailed psychological portrait of American expatriates abroad, but goes further in dissecting the inner turmoil of the protagonist. David must come to terms with the traditional family values that have permeated his life and his own homosexual leanings. Baldwin juxtaposes the two desires through David's relationships with Hella, another American expatriate, and Giovanni, an Italian immigrant. The story itself is well written and intriguing, but many of the elements involved are only able to arise in the unique atmosphere of Paris. This paper will attempt to examine some of the reasons for Baldwin's choice of setting. The two American characters in the novel have both left the United States for different reasons. David, the narrator, claims that "I wanted to find myself" (p. 31) when leaving towards France, reflecting in hindsight that he would only find the self that he kept trying to escape. His past hinges on a dysfunctional relationship with his father, who spent most of David's youth drunk, to the point that by the time David grows older and the father attempts to get closer, then David no longer wishes it. David's rejection of his father stems from two root causes: firstly, David has begun to judge his father and, while not disapproving of the alcohol exactly, David resents his father's emotional absence through the years. Secondly, David has had at least one homosexual experience by this time - with a boy named Joey - whom he then promptly rejects. David's actions show a subconscious shame about his own homosexual tendencies, as well as a concern that his father might discover this aspect of his son. David's departure from the United States is an attempt to put physical distance between himself and his father, as well as psychological distance between himself, the experience with Joey, and the possibility of his father's discovery. Hella is on a similar journey of self-discovery with similar parallels of trying to escape. She is from Minneapolis and not much is said about her hometown. Instead, she is absent the first half of the novel because she is in Spain, contemplating David's marriage proposal. Hella's quest is to find a nobler purpose in her life than to become an average mother and housewife, yet when she returns to Paris, she grudgingly says that "it's really all I'm good for." (p.163). Her spirit is broken. Her old stance had been that a woman's attachment to a man was degrading, yet she now feels that even though a man will always be a stranger to a woman, she will only be free once she is committed to a relationship. She claims that "women get attached to something by default." (p.167), and that, essentially her purpose is therefore defined by David's need for her. Both of these characters go through an evolution in the course of the novel: they seek to escape their own nature, then accept it for a time and are happy, only to become miserable in the end by denying it once more. David only acknowledges his love for Giovanni when Giovanni is slated for execution; Hella leaves David when he needs the most support, primarily because of the revelation of David's love for Giovanni. Because of the very nature of the Americans, they are portrayed in sharp contrast to the Parisians. Hella declares that "coming back to Paris is always so lovely" (p. 160), implying the American romanticism attached to the city, but her true confusion of the Europe experience is hidden in her description of Spain "it's very beautiful. I just didn't know what I was doing there." David, while he enjoy Parisian life, identifies closely with the his fellow customers at the American Express Office, whom he perceives as having a quality "unedited, unrealized the sorrow of the disconnected." (p. 119). These aspects have become more pronounced by his embracement of a homosexual lifestyle, which itself is withdrawn from normal standards, but most especially by the symbolic prison of Giovanni's room, which has become an isolated reality for both he and Giovanni. The Europeans have their own perceptions of Americans: Giovanni claims that they both think too much and act as though their isolation has turned them into a different species. Guillaume, the homosexual businessman that Giovanni murders, observes that "The Americans always fly." (p. 204). Jacques, the mutual acquaintance of David, Giovanni, and Guillaume, merges all of the observations when he relates that Americans (speaking of David) "only disappear in order - to think." (p.169). All of these comments, from both Americans and Europeans, serve as sweeping generalities while also being particularly descriptive to David's progression through the novel. As the narrator (and by the story being in first person), all of the information is filtered though his perceptions, so it is only natural that all of the descriptions somehow relate to his own mental journey. The homosexual company David has kept has provided a incremental submersion into isolation ad, therefore, an opportunity to contemplate his homosexual tendencies. Paris has removed him from America; the community has removed him from social norms; Giovanni has removed him from unwanted homosexual advances while drawing him further into a relationship about which he has fantasized. Thus, when the landlady in southern France intrudes upon David's privacy, she interjects all of the elements of normal society that David has been avoiding. She laments the fact that David is separated from his father in America, but philosophizes that because David's mother is dead that his father will be looking forward to grandchildren all the more. She advises that David should really get married and settle down to rearing a family. This scene in particular, chronologically taking place near the end of the novel, represents an amalgamation of many elements of the story, in addition to validating David's own shame of homosexuality and suspicion that he should be following the landlady's advice. She is a mother figure, representing both David's dead mother and his image of what Giovanni's mother might look like. She also bridges the European and American cultures, for her faith in heterosexuality hinges upon the notion of producing children. Thus, whatever David's internal conflict might be, there is a mixture of wisdom and ironic bitterness for David when she says, "Men need a woman to tell them the truth." (p.94). Paris is traditionally associated with romance; Baldwin has incorporated this element by using it as the setting for David to meet first Hella, the Giovanni, but the city itself symbolizes much more than that. Its easiest comparison is to New York City, David's home, in that it is diametrically opposed in representation. Where New York is emblematic of America's bustling enterprise, Paris represents centuries of history and human development. While New York buildings parallel the social climbing (in that it climbs upon a foundation of acceptability - upwards, not outwards), Paris spreads out in a organic sprawl reminiscent of the messy reality of human relationships. Paris, to the American mind set, represents an exotic foreign mentality which through comparison to the United States, can only be viewed as more liberated. Ironically, it is the self-same foreign qualities that ultimately alienates American expatriates from it, for they never release the idea that it is a different country and they therefore are never quite able of fully integrating with it. This appeal is not limited to Americans, as Giovanni is drawn there from Italy, but Paris has enough common European standards that it does not seem as difficult for anyone arriving from a nearby country. Paris is a particularly apt location for the plot line of a blossoming love between David and Giovanni, considering how America views the notion. David openly admits that their situation "is a crime - in my country" (p.107) In Paris, however, people do not necessarily support a homosexual lifestyle, but they do not openly oppose it. Perhaps its is, as Giovanni suggests, out of a sense of privacy. Regardless, there is a larger homosexual community that support one another. These are some of the main reasons Baldwin set the story in Paris, but he also incorporates elements of more conservative traditions (the basis for many American values) through the very fact that the homosexual community is a minority. Between social and biological realities, David becomes convinced that he "cannot have a life" (p.188) with Giovanni. Giovanni, in turn, is perceptive enough to recognize that David is concerned about his self-image, accusing him by saying "You love your purity You want to be clean You want to leave Giovanni because he makes you stink." (pp. 186-187). Giovanni is correct, for David secretly considered the relationship unclean, as exhibited by the fact that he refused to write his father for money until Hella had returned and he could claim that they were engaged. The prevailing Parisian sentiment can be inferred from how the newspapers cleaned up Guillaume's appearance after his murder, referring to him only as a "businessman" rather than the owner of a string of bars oriented to the homosexual community. It is rare that a novel can successful make the protagonist a villain and the antagonist the victim, but Baldwin has managed to do just that. Through Giovanni's confession of having had a heterosexual relationship that resulted in a stillborn child, he becomes not only a sympathetic character, but is equated with David and Hella in that he too is trying to escape something. If anything, a homosexual relationship would save him the pain of ever having to lose a child again. David, on the other hand, comes to accept the homosexual aspects of his own personality, but much too late. By the time he does, Giovanni is already sentenced to be executed and Hella has had all of her hopes for a happy marriage destroyed by David's revelation of his true feelings. Interestingly enough, it is the nature of Paris that has brought all of this to a head. The same city that had nurtured both romances has turned to destroy Giovanni and, through him, Hella and David. Paris has made it impossible for Giovanni to work anywhere other than for Guillaume. After David has left him, Giovanni wastes away, becoming essentially a male prostitute, and this situation has driven him in desperation to go to Guillaume in the hopes of being re-hired. Guillaume's abuse drives Giovanni to murder; the city's newspaper create such a sensation that Giovanni becomes a hunted man and, when apprehended, sentenced to be executed. Thus, the same city that offered all three character an escape from reality turns around and crushes them with the weight of social acceptability and responsibility, while at the same time making the most reprehensible character in the book, Guillaume, look like a respectable member of society. Baldwin has used Paris to invert social norms, only to give them that much more gravity when he reverses the standards back to the approval of the majority. Works Cited Baldwin, James. Giovanni's Room. New York: Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., 1956. Read More