Giovanni's Room

In reading the novel of Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin we meet the protagonist David an American who lives in France and is having an intimate relationship with a man and a woman at the same time. The author gives two important messages about the act of having sex. One of the messages is the fact that David believes that having sex should only be between a man and a woman and not two men. The other is that David feels that when he does have sex it is because of love. These two messages are shown a lot in the story of Giovanni’s Room.

The first message about sex that we see is when David begins to talk about his first experience with a man named Joey. He begins by saying, “But Joey is a boy. I saw suddenly the power in his thighs, in his arms, and in his loosely curled fists. The power and the promise and the mystery of that body made me suddenly afraid. That body suddenly seemed the black opening of a cavern in which I would be tortured till madness came, in which I would lose my manhood.” This shows that he feels that the only way in which he could accept having sex is if it was with a woman but not with a man. David does have feelings for this boy but he still cannot accept what he just did because he was always taught that this was wrong.

This message is important because it shows that sometimes what is expected from society in the way that a person has to be is what causes us to ignore what we are truly feeling. This is what happened to David because he fell into having to show his manhood and felt that if he did have sex that it would decrease his manhood. This is just showing that sometimes also gender roles play a big part of this.

The other message that is given by the author is that David the main character feels that sex should only be between him and people that he feels he loves. This is shown especially when he actually does have sex with someone who he knows that he has no feelings for and so after having sex he feels bad. David says, “I also approached Sue as though she were a job of work, a job which it was necessary to do in an unforgettable manner.” This showed that because he had no feelings for her, he felt that she meant nothing to him and was also not worth anything. On the other hand with Giovanni he felt that it made him feel loved when they were actually having sex. This is shown when he says, “When it was over, I lay in the dark and listened to his breathing and dreamed of the touch of hands, of Giovanni’s hands, or anybody’s hands, hands which would have the power to crush me and make me whole again.” The comment he makes here is just so much different from the one he makes of Sue because here he feels that Giovanni makes him feel loved and that he likes this feeling.

I think that this is important to the audience reading the book because it shows that sometimes we do things just because we have to but really don’t enjoy what we do. The message is given to us so that we could really make sure that we are able to think before we act because David did not really think about it and then he just felt bad.

In the theme of sex we have seen that for one love plays a big part in this act and also that sometimes our own life brings us to believe what is good and bad about it. This is why I really feel that the author made sure that we noticed these ideas about this theme because it gave a better understanding to David. It showed that by him becoming aware of these things he was able to get to know himself better and grow as a person.