Giovannis Room - Essay Example

Giovanni's Room Following closely behind the highly successful Go Tell it on the mountain (1953) came another major success by the d African-American novelist James Baldwin, Giovanni's Room. The novel turned out to be an eye opener and gained huge amounts of scathing criticism and high acclaim at the same time. It focused on a multitude of themes, majority of which had never been discussed this openly, boldly and incisively, hence successfully provoking what Nelson calls, "a broad spectrum of intellectual and emotional responses" (p.9). In this novel, Baldwin, with great directness and daring, explores the theme of homosexuality. His choice of theme was brave simply because in the decade of the 50's homosexuality was still an issue not spoken of or discussed openly. America was waking up to the call of the civil rights movement and it would still take her people a few more years to accept issues of such controversy. The caging effect that conventions can have on a person is also highlighted effectively by Baldwin as he depicts David's struggle with the decision of marrying Hella, simply because it was expected of him. Baldwin, however, was not intimidated by the frowns of disapproval directed his way and with great determination highlighted the plight of those forced to live in the closet simply because they are terrified of breaking conventions and not being able to measure up to the definition of "respectable" formulated by those around them. In today's world, however, when gay literature is quite common and the issue of coming out of the closet is not as burning as it was half a century ago, the greatest appeal of the novel lies in the manner in which Baldwin has sheathed his central character under layers and layers of a complex psychology. Baldwin has portrayed David not simply as a two-dimensional gay character but has breathed a life into him by depicting in great detail the inner struggles and dilemmas that he faces and how his personality is shaped and molded by his childhood experiences and the constraints that he feels because of the social conventions. At this point it cannot be denied that the most important force in David's life as a child had undoubtedly been that of his father. Even after David has grown up, one could feel the palpable presence of his father looming somewhere in the background. It is, without a doubt, the forceful personality of his father that indirectly affected David's vital decisions and choices. The importance of David's father in David's life can be linked directly to Baldwin's relationship with his own preacher father (Allen, p.29). Baldwin believed that the influence a father exercised over his children could not be denied - his own abusive father leaving imprints of his personality permanently on young Baldwin. It is this same influence that Baldwin desired to create by depicting David's relation with his father. His main aim was to show how vital the support of a family is for a homosexual and how much influence our near and dear ones exert when it comes to the decision a homosexual makes about his lifestyle choices. David's father, although in no way bearing any resemblance to the insane, ranting and abusive father of Baldwin, was a handsome man who had a particular and active fondness for women and alcohol. Baldwin depicted him in such a way that he naturally stood out, not only as attractive but someone who possessed a great deal of easy charm, with his ruddy face, sandy hair and his readiness to laugh. Baldwin has taken care not to introduce him as a clean-cut, out-of-the-factory villain of the story. This would have robbed the novel of its unique complexity and while giving the novel an easy to understand plot, would have deprived it of psychologically complex characters. His sister, Ellen, who believed him to be negatively influencing his son, always met his promiscuousness with disapproval. Once, as David recounts, a fierce argument took place between Aunt Ellen and his father, when he returned one night drunk, as was his custom. Upon being confronted about his behavior and asked if he wanted David to become a man like him, he emphatically replied, "all I want for David is that he grow up to be a man. And when I say a man, Ellen, I don't mean a Sunday school teacher" (15). This sentence of his is highly insightful about his personality and shows that to him, being a "man" was exactly the opposite of a priestly, pure person, but rather a man who led a life frolicking around and indulging in masculine activities that invariably included womanizing. These were the unsaid pressures that bore down on David's subconscious and made him strive to live up to his father's expectations, and in dong so, he naturally harmed himself and suppressed his own desires. All of these added together to build a multitude of complexities in the father-son relationship. David, it cannot be doubted, in his early years is shown to be viewing his father with a wide-eyed admiration that a child naturally feels for his father. He did all he could to gain his fathers favorable attention and any fleeting compliments that he could throw his way. Even Aunt Ellen is shown to be complaining to his father. She says, "he only listens to me when he thinks it pleases you" (p.15). The power that his father exerted on him can be gauged by the simple yet powerful example that Baldwin provides for the reader. After his first sexual encounter with Joey, the immediate thought that comes to David's mind is what his father will think of him if he discovered the truth David's anguished thoughts are aptly expressed by Baldwin, "Then I thought of my father, who had no one in the world but me" (p.9). The phrase "no one in the world but me" shows how David believed that since he was an only child he was additionally obligated to be a "good boy." This episode is a testament to Baldwin's expertise as a novelist and a painter of human emotions, because he knew and consequently showed how important is the approval, support and understanding of family members on issues such as these and how invaluable is a father who does not measure the manliness of his child by his sexual preferences. With the passage of time, however, naivet and innocence was replaced in David by a better understanding of his father's nature and consequently disillusionment on David's part. He came to understand better the implications of his father's promiscuity and the irresponsibility of his attitude that was revealed by his heavy drinking, so much so that a time came when he could not comfortably see a woman and wonder whether she had had an affair with his father or not. As a result one sees an emotional distancing between the two characters and almost total emotional estrangement, which resulted in a severe lack of communication between the two. Neither could understand what the other wanted. His father considered David's inner turmoil to be a phase of growing up. This estrangement hurt David doubly, as it not only left him lonely, it also made him resent his father for not being there when he was most needed by his son. "He was unable to believe that there could be anything seriously wrong between us. And this was not only because he would not then have known what to do about it; was mainly because he would then have had to face the knowledge that he had left something, somewhere, undone, something of the utmost importance" (p.16). A time came, later on, when David is shown to have resigned himself to the fact that his father will never be able to reach an understanding of David's needs and his inner yearnings. Hence an unspoken agreement was reached between the two in which David portrayed his life in exactly the colors his father wanted to see. This perhaps, is the only similarity between the two characters. They both lived in a world of illusion, building mirages for themselves and imagining oasis when none was to be found, as David said, "for the vision I gave my father of my life was exactly the vision in which I myself most desperately needed to believe" (p.20). It cannot be denied that David's confusion about his sexual identity and his indecisiveness and lack of courage springs partly from his unconscious need to live up to his father's image of a manly man. The entire novel revolves around how David is unable to accept his own humanity. There are two underlying causes for it, firstly, he is unable to accept his own situation because he is afraid that the society will not accept him and secondly he fears that his father will not be able to accept him. The reader can feel David's effort to be accepted by a father he rates fairly high. The struggle might be unconscious on David's part but it does pervade the novel, nonetheless. As a child David wished to emulate his father. After growing up, the reader can see disappointment and resentment rising up at his father's inability to understand his situation, but never once can one see David wholly free from his father's influence. Even while being with Giovanni, there is a constant fear of discovery by his father, coupled with bouts of guilt. The fear of his father is so great that David cannot find the courage to ask his father for some money to help Giovanni, as he knows that no matter what lie he constructs, his father will, undoubtedly, see through it. Baldwin has, with great expertise, depicted an insecure son's fear of rejection and used it to personify a homosexuals desire for acceptance, fear of being shunned by society and endeavor to appear perfect in the eyes of the ones he loves. Baldwin has proved, through his novel and through his portrayal of a father-son relationship how a David's inability to come out of the closet is not just guided by social realities but also from a fear of disappointing his father and not being able to measure up to his ideals. References Allen, Brooke. "The Better James Baldwin." New criterion 16 (1998): 29. Baldwin, James. Giovanni's Room. New York: Delta, 2000. Nelson, Emmanuel. Contemporary African American Novelists: A Bio-Bibliographical Critical Sourcebook. Westport: Greenwood Press. 1999. Shin, Andrew & Barbara Hudson. "Beneath the Black aesthetic: James Baldwin's primer of Black American masculinity - African American gay author." African American Reviwer (1998). Read More