{"id":1013,"date":"2023-11-03T16:44:57","date_gmt":"2023-11-03T20:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=1013"},"modified":"2023-11-03T16:44:57","modified_gmt":"2023-11-03T20:44:57","slug":"giovannis-room-prison-or-paradise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2023\/11\/03\/giovannis-room-prison-or-paradise\/","title":{"rendered":"Giovanni’s Room: Prison or Paradise?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\u201c\u2018Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden,\u2019 Jacques said. And then: \u2018I wonder why.\u2019
… I said nothing.\u201d<\/p>James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room<\/em>, page 239. <\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

There are undeniable parallels between Giovanni\u2019s room and the metaphorical closet we invoke when referring to the \u201ccoming out\u201d of a queer individual. We conceive of this closet as a dark and confining space that is dominated by feelings of fear, shame, and repression. Rightfully so, then, we usually understand a friend or family member\u2019s coming out of the closet as a liberating experience\u2013 a celebratory moment indicating that our loved one feels sufficiently supported by others and secure enough to love and\/or express him\/her\/themself as they please. However, if we read Giovanni\u2019s room as an allusion to this closet, James Baldwin complicates this generally positive perception of coming out of the closet contrasted by the negative view of life in the closet.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one sense, Baldwin presents the closet (Giovanni\u2019s room) as space that offers security for both David and Giovanni. On more than one occasion, David refers to the room as \u201chome,\u201d describing the \u201cmany drunken\u201d mornings he \u201cstumbled homeward\u201d with Giovanni (279). David also recalls the \u201cchildren playing outside the window\u201d and \u201cstrange shares that loomed against it,\u201d noting that \u201cat such moments, Giovanni, working in the room, or lying in bed, would stiffen like a hunting dog and remain perfectly silent until whatever seemed to threaten our safety had moved away\u201d (289). In both of these instances, Giovanni\u2019s room functions as protection from the outside world. Here, Giovanni and David have some freedom, albeit distorted, to express their queer love for one another that is not acceptable elsewhere.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baldwin further inverts our perception of coming out of the closet in detailing David\u2019s desire to not only escape Giovanni\u2019s room, but this queer part of his identity altogether. David pleads with Hella: \u201cWhen the money gets here, let\u2019s take it and get out of Paris\u2026 I\u2019ve been living in Giovanni\u2019s room for months\u2026 and I just can\u2019t stand it anymore. I have to get out of there, please\u201d (331). In this same conversation, he describes Giovanni’s room as \u201cstinking and dirty\u201d (332). Through David\u2019s desperate and disgusted tone, it is evident that he is not looking to leave Giovanni\u2019s room to openly enter society as a queer man. In fact, it is quite the opposite; he wants to leave this part of himself behind and start \u201canew\u201d with Hella. The closet in this story is claustrophobic and restrictive to David for very different reasons than we might assume, giving our preconceived notions of what it means to “come out.” If it is neither the outside world nor Giovanni\u2019s room, then where can David find his Eden as a queer man? Does Baldwin believe there exists an Eden for him to exist fully in his queerness and manhood?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201c\u2018Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden,\u2019 Jacques said. And then: \u2018I wonder why.\u2019 … I said nothing.\u201d James Baldwin, Giovanni’s Room, page 239. There are undeniable parallels between Giovanni\u2019s room and the metaphorical closet we invoke when referring to the \u201ccoming out\u201d of a queer individual. We conceive of this closet as a … Continue reading Giovanni’s Room: Prison or Paradise?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4680,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[503977,471414],"class_list":["post-1013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-david-and-giovanni","tag-native-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4680"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1013"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1014,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1013\/revisions\/1014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}