![]() ![]() David, however, evades definitive characterization. As the novel progresses, and he moves into Giovanni’s room, a different portrait of David begins to emerge: one who dislikes being referred to as American and who engages in a homosexual affair despite being on the verge of engagement to his girlfriend, Hella. During his initial visit to Guillaume’s bar, David’s negative attitude towards homosexuality is positioned as an American construct, contrasted against the pervasive homosexuality present in the bar and, more generally, within his Parisian social circle. ![]() Baldwin utilizes David’s movement through physical spaces in Paris, from Guillaume’s bar, to Giovanni’s room, and finally his own room, to externalize David’s internal restlessness. Yet once in Paris, he balks at the city’s griminess and flamboyant displays of sexuality, failing to find solace. He refuses, however, to confront the source of his troubles and flees to Paris in an attempt to evade strict American ideals of heterosexuality, masculinity, and moral cleanliness. He assumes that the emotional turmoil and psychological ails he faces at home in America are the result of his geographical surroundings in reality, they lie within his psychological landscape. ![]() In James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956), David embarks on a search to “find ” (21). ![]()
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