Extended Essays 2021

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

Part One: Self-Contempt as Destruction

Self-contempt is established as a manifestation of internalised homophobia through the use of the imagery of dirtiness, and expressions of disgust. David says of an effeminate boy that, “his utter grotesqueness made me uneasy; perhaps in the same way that the sight of monkeys eating their own excrement turns some people’s stomachs. They might not mind so much if monkeys did not – so grotesquely – resemble human beings.” (pg. 24). The effeminate nature of the boy is his defining feature; David focuses on describing is his appearance, that he was, “wearing makeup and earrings and with his heavy blond hair piled high.” (pg. 24). As such, the boy is representative of queer identity itself, as it is the defining feature of his existence to David. The likening of the boy to monkeys eating excrement alone then serves to characterise queerness as a disgusting, dirty act. Furthermore, the fact that the monkey resembles human beings displays the capacity for humans to act in the same grotesque manner as the monkey, and so is a metaphor for David in the sense that the boy’s existence, the existence of queerness, is a direct reflection on David’s own capacity for homosexuality, and thus of his own homosexual identity. This then shows how David’s disgust of other gay men is a projection of the disgust he feels towards himself, and his own queer identity. Self-contempt also manifests as dehumanisation of others, which is portrayed through use of the imagery of death. David’s description of another gay man is that of, “…a mummy or a zombie (…) of something walking after it had been put to death.” (pg. 34), that, “…the flat hips moved with a dead, horrifying lasciviousness.” (pg. 34), and, “The face was white and thoroughly bloodless” (pg. 34). This description once again displays David’s disgust of queer characters, through the description of “dead, horrifying lasciviousness”, and the unflattering imagery of a “mummy” or “zombie”. Furthermore, the imagery of death, of the “mummy” or “zombie”, portrays the character as devoid of life, and therefore devoid of personhood. This is reinforced by the ways in which he is dehumanised in this passage, with the use of the “it” pronoun such as in, “It carried a glass, it walked on its toes,” (pg. 34), and the dissection of him into, “the flat hips” and “the face”. Rather than stating that this is ‘his’ face or ‘his’ hips, they are separate from the personhood of the character and as such work to dehumanise him. Therefore, it is shown how David’s self-contempt not only manifests itself in disgust of queer characters, but also in dehumanisation of queer characters.

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