Extended Essays 2021

RQ: To what extent does Baldwin portray homosexual identity as a cause of destruction in Giovanni’s Room?

“You love your purity, you love your mirror – you are just like a little virgin,” (pg. 125), thus creating an association between the mirror and ideas of virginity, of sexlessness. Therefore, it is seen how breaking out of this mirror would release David from the denial of his own sexual desires, would lead to revelation, a reference to the revelation found after leaving the garden of Eden, and that at this point David will have to confront his own, “troubling sex, and wonder how it can be redeemed,” (pg. 149), how he will go about reconciling his sexuality. The placement of the passage from 1 Corinthians 13 in this section, that “when I became a man, I put away childish things” then further reinforces this link to the death of innocence, of purity, after leaving the garden of Eden. The novel itself then seemingly operates in this state of departure from the garden, in a space between staying and leaving. This state of timelessness, of being in a transitionary period between past and future, is shown in David’s description of his time in Giovanni’s room, that, “time flowed past indifferently above us, hours and days had no meaning.” (pg. 67), exemplifying how his time in Paris exists almost outside of the normal passage of time, and thus outside of his progression out of the garden. Thus, Baldwin is able to use both David’s self-contempt and self-denial as a warning of the consequences of choosing one or the other, which is shown throughout the novel as destruction.

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