{"id":498,"date":"2021-04-04T23:23:07","date_gmt":"2021-04-05T03:23:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=498"},"modified":"2021-04-04T23:23:35","modified_gmt":"2021-04-05T03:23:35","slug":"revolving-doors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/04\/04\/revolving-doors\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolving Doors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Throughout the novel, I have been interested in the presence of women, or lack thereof. In \u201cThe Male Prison,\u201d Baldwin discusses Gide\u2019s use of a woman named Madeleine and her relationship with a homosexual man. In some ways, from Baldwin\u2019s writing on Gide\u2019s work, I see a similarity to David and Hella\u2019s relationship in the novel. Baldwin writes, \u201cMadeleine kept open for him a kind of door of hope, of possibility, the possibility of entering into communion with another sex. This door, which is the door to life and air and freedom from the tyranny of one\u2019s own personality, <em>must <\/em>be kept open\u2026\u201d (Baldwin 235). He then goes on to say that those who feel that their door is going to close, or already has, need these relationships.\u00a0<br \/><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This reflects the beginning of part two in <em>Giovanni\u2019s Room, <\/em>when David is preparing for the return of Hella, and how his talk with Giovanni about it, made him question his life. Giovanni tries to understand David\u2019s relationship with Hella and I think David is trying to understand it, as well. In some ways, David is afraid of the life he may live, or how different his world would be if he cut ties with Hella, and actually lived the life he wants to. Hella is holding his door open to an easier life; she is his tie to what he believes to be masculinity, and the normal life as the man that his Father wants him to be. We then see David go through the tyranny of his own personality and life in Chapter Two of Part Two, he says \u201cI was in a terrible confusion. Sometimes I thought, but this <em>is <\/em>your life. Stop fighting it. Stop fighting,\u201d (Baldwin 162, E-Book). This is where I find confusion with Baldwin\u2019s two writings. I think we can see that David having a relationship with Hella would make his life easier, but it is not the life that he wants to or needs to live. I think Baldwin is saying that, yes, women and men may need each other to live, in the way that it would give them freedom to an easier life. However, the societal pressures often lead them to lives of misery, so in that sense, there is no freedom?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout the novel, I have been interested in the presence of women, or lack thereof. In \u201cThe Male Prison,\u201d Baldwin discusses Gide\u2019s use of a woman named Madeleine and her relationship with a homosexual man. In some ways, from Baldwin\u2019s writing on Gide\u2019s work, I see a similarity to David and Hella\u2019s relationship in the &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/04\/04\/revolving-doors\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Revolving Doors<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3905,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[489038],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-giovannis-room"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","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\/3905"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":499,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}