Extended Essays 2021

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

The destruction of David’s love for Giovanni is shown to be a consequence of David’s self- contempt. Throughout the novel, Giovanni is often associated with images of light (DeGout, 1992). He is described as having, “all of the light of that gloomy tunnel trapped around his head.” (pg. 38), and that his eyes are “like morning stars.” (pg. 51). This lends a certain angelic imagery to his description, and thus conveys Giovanni’s innocence. He is explicitly described as childlike, and therefore innocent, in David’s descriptions of him as, “boyish and shy” (pg. 32), and “like a kid about five years old waking up on Christmas morning.” (pg. 51). However, it is seen that David’s self-contempt corrupts even this innocent image of Giovanni. David begins to describe Giovanni with the same imagery used to dehumanise other queer characters, particularly the zombie-like man, as the light in Giovanni’s eyes “became a glitter,” (pg. 67), akin to how the man is described, as he “glittered in the dim light” (pg. 34), that Giovanni’s brow “began to suggest the skull beneath.” (pg. 67), likening him to the image of his skeleton, similar to the images of the mummy or zombie, and that, most damningly, his face “became a stranger’s face” (pg. 67), therefore denying him his own personhood and effectively dehumanising him in the eyes of David. This is emphasised by the fact that this dehumanisation is described as a “metamorphosis” (pg. 67). David details, “the light in the eyes” (pg. 67), the “wide and beautiful brow” and “the sensual lips” (pg. 67), images that recall the innocent descriptions of Giovanni’s eyes like “morning stars”, before he subsequently destroys them through the imagery of death. Thus, these associations with light make the dehumanisation of Giovanni an even more egregious act, as David is transforming that which is innocent and pure into something strange and inhuman. Therefore, it is effectively shown that David’s own self- contempt effectively corrupts his image of Giovanni, and thus destroys his love for him. Giovanni’s self-contempt is also shown to result in his own destruction. His self-contempt is established through the use of his room as a representation of his own mental state. Giovanni’s room is linked to the imagery of dirtiness, as, “One of the walls was a dirty, streaked white,” (pg. 76), that “On the floor also, lay our dirty laundry,” (pg. 77), and “The table was loaded with yellowing newspapers and empty bottles and it held a single brown and wrinkled potato in which even the sprouting eyes were rotten.” (pg. 77). It is explicitly stated by David that this dirtiness is representative of, “Giovanni’s regurgitated life.” (pg. 77) and that, “…it was a matter of punishment and grief.” (pg. 78). Therefore, as Giovanni outwardly represents himself, his life, through the imagery of dirtiness, this could be seen as a metaphor for his own self- contempt, of his own attempts to punish himself for his homosexual identity. It has been established that the loss of Giovanni’s heteronormativity in Italy is representative of his ‘garden

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