That sentence struck me as particularly interesting, because it seemed counterintuitive to a lot of Baldwin’s thoughts on love. The confusion, hatred, shame, and desperation surrounding love, particularly at a young age, seems to contradict this sentiment, especially as they are expressed in Baldwin’s writing. Most of the conflict in Giovanni’s Room is centered on romantic love, and how it negatively affects the characters and their subsequent misery. After meeting Giovanni, the narrator is “utterly, hopelessly, horribly glad” (pg 254). The shame associated with the narrator’s immediate feelings for Giovanni is evident. Similarly, the narrator says “we simply stared at each other–with dismay, with relief, breathing hard” (pg 273) in describing he and Giovanni’s love and lust. The dual nature of shame and joy are rife in Baldwin’s descriptions of the narrator’s feelings towards Giovanni. Finally, it is heavily implied that love led to the events that caused Giovanni’s death. It seems plenty of people have died because of love, in stories and in real life. Love leaves many people miserable. But the deeper meaning of Jacques’ statement prevails. Feeling love has not killed anyone (generally, I guess exceptions could still be made). Love repressed, unaccepted, persecuted, or unspoken has led to pain, suffering, and death, but unrequited love has not.
That sentence emphasizes Baldwin’s struggles with acceptance of his sexuality, love, and identity. Ambiguity and uncertainty lead to repression, fear, and shame, and the sense of those feelings pervade part one of Giovanni’s Room. The narrator’s own engagement to Hella, his disgust and reliance on Jacques, Giovanni’s dislike of Guillaume, and even the charade of practiced conversation in the bars all reflect the ambiguous, uncertain, and overbearing sense of fear in the novel. It seems logical therefore that Baldwin’s ultimate conclusion to these feelings is accepting love, not hiding it, repressing it, or fearing it. As Baldwin repeats numerously throughout his writings and interviews, accepting life is imperative to being human. The roots of this conclusion are very clear in Giovanni’s Room alongside Baldwin’s personal experiences with homosexuality and religion, but I think Toibin also makes a good point in referencing Baldwin’s influence from English and Lost Generation writers because a major emphasis of those writers is loss of innocence. Baldwin’s version of loss of innocence takes place a bit later in life and focuses more on the deeper, darker parts of human experience and the shame that accompanies them. For Baldwin, growing up is accompanied by a schism in identity, a battle between how he sees himself and how he feels. This lack of understanding and lack of acceptance leads to shame, guilt, and fear, and the ultimate answer is to, as Baldwin puts it, accept life and accept being human.
I was similarly struck by this quotation. I agree with your beginning point that this idea may seem contradictory to Baldwin’s other rather negative emotions surrounding love. This post makes me wonder if those feelings you identify are rather a reflection of Baldwin’s willingness to suffer and die not because of but for love. Perhaps even this analysis of mine is too optimistic, but I think of the death of Giovanni at the end of the novel, for example. The characters all seem to agree David’s leaving him is what drove him to that point of murder, ultimately leading to his executing. Additionally, Giovanni often invokes his life as reason for David to stay with him, tragically forshadowing his eventual death for these reasons. Regardless, I think your post draws attention to the dynamism of love– for Baldwin (and arguably most people), it is a process, a constant struggle.