Giovanni’s Room (Masterplots II: American Fiction Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: James Baldwin
- First Published: 1956
- Type of Plot: Social morality
- Time of Work: The 1940’s
- Setting: Brooklyn, New York, southern France, and Paris
- Principal Characters: David, Joey, Giovanni, Hella, Sue, Jacques
- Genres: Long fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s
- Locales: Paris, France
The Novel
Giovanni’s Room chronicles its protagonist’s search for his sexual identity. The search proves to be futile, and the novel ends on a note of considerable hopelessness. David, now living in France, is revealed first through a flashback, in which the reader learns that he grew up in Brooklyn with his father and his father’s sister, Ellen. David’s mother died when he was five years old, but her presence has been a real one. Her picture dominates the living room, and David frequently has dreams about her that are both Oedipal and necrophilic. He does not...
[The entire page is 2394 words long]
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