Giovanni’s Room: Part 1: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Although it’s not immediately apparent why David is drinking alone in an empty house, one thing becomes clear in this opening scene: David has been lying to himself about his own romantic feelings. That he’s only realizing now that he never loved Hella—with whom he was living—suggests that he’s quite adept at deceiving himself. Though Baldwin doesn’t yet clarify the nature of this kind of deception, it’s worth noting that being truthful with himself has plunged him into a bout of lonely, depressive drinking. This, in turn, means that he’s most likely unused to being honest about his romantic emotions.

Again, the particulars surrounding David’s troubles aren’t immediately forthcoming. However, Baldwin hints at the fact that David had a romantic connection with a man named Giovanni while Hella—his girlfriend—was away in Spain. This aligns with the previous notion that he has trouble being truthful about his romantic emotions, and readers see that he has been lying not only to himself, but also to Hella. Given that he’s morosely drinking alone in an empty house in southern France, it’s reasonable to say that his inability to be honest about his love life has probably driven away the people he cares about most.

An American man living in France, David associates living outside of the United States with a certain kind of freedom, one that enables him to escape whatever pressures or expectations await him at home. This, at least, is what Baldwin intimates when he suggests that David and Hella felt an unexpected sense of freedom when they made love in France, as if simply living in a different country gave them a feeling of sexual liberation. But because David never actually loved Hella (and, indeed, seems to have loved a man instead), the very idea of sexual freedom in their relationship most likely daunted him, as it only emphasized the extent to which he was pretending to be someone he wasn’t. In this way, then, he was actually imprisoned by this so-called freedom, though he apparently embraced this imprisonment by “moor[ing]” himself to Hella—yet another sign that he is an expert at denying what he really wants.

Readers don’t yet know what took place between David and Giovanni or, for that matter, between David and Hella. Whatever happened, though, it’s clear that his inability or unwillingness to be truthful about his emotions somehow led to misery and—in Giovanni’s case—death. 

In this moment, Baldwin illuminates why David must have had such a hard time being truthful with himself and with Hella about his romantic feelings, as his sexual experience with Joey indicates that he’s attracted to men. This, of course, doesn’t mean he’s attracted exclusively to men—an important idea to keep in mind when discussing Giovanni’s Room, since Baldwin never clarifies whether David is gay or bisexual (a distinction that Baldwin perhaps felt was beside the point). David’s feeling of terror in the aftermath of his sexual encounter with Joey illustrates the many internalized biases he has against gay or bisexual people. Unable to accept the idea that two people of the same sex can have romantic relationships, David thinks he can’t pursue his connection with Joey because it will threaten his masculinity, ultimately suggesting that he thinks being a true man is directly linked to heterosexuality.

David’s thoughts about his father suggest that he cares deeply about what the old man thinks. Indeed, he wants to live up to his father’s expectations, which apparently don’t include homosexual (or bisexual) relationships. In turn, the readers see that David’s denial of his sexual identity is fueled not only by his own entrenched biases, but by his fear that he won’t fulfill certain expectations placed upon him by others. To counteract these fears, it seems, David takes out his aggression on Joey, bullying him so that David doesn’t have to think about the implications of what happened between them.

Part of David’s desire to please his father has to do with his mother’s death. Feeling an undue amount of pressure to make his father happy in the wake of his mother’s passing, he refuses to let himself pursue gay or bisexual relationships. In this way, he lives his life according to a set of expectations, limiting himself based on what he thinks will make his father happy. Interestingly enough, his father also has to contend with certain societal expectations, as Ellen shames him for failing to lead the life of an upstanding single father. In turn, readers see the many ways in which people often subject each other—both knowingly and unknowingly—to gendered cultural norms that effectively curtail happiness and personal freedom.

The way David’s relationship with his father informs his ideas of masculinity is noteworthy, since his struggle to embody the image of a quintessential man is what later keeps him from  happiness. His father’s approach to parenthood is so casual and friendly that it is void of the kind of emotional support that typically characterizes father-son dynamics. Wanting to connect over conventional notions of manhood, his father unwittingly sets certain expectations for David, sending the message that their bond is centered around one thing: the fact that they’re both men. As a result, David feels like he can’t deviate from the lifestyle of a conventional heterosexual male without threatening his relationship with his father. This, it seems, is why he can’t bring himself to apologize for what he really feels, which is that he has let his father down by harboring desires for other men. 

Because David can’t tell his father about his true identity (and, for that matter, isn’t even honest with himself about his sexual orientation), he realizes that they will never be able to truly relate to one another. Accordingly, he misrepresents himself so that his father will accept his lifestyle. In this regard, readers see that David is quite capable of hiding from both himself and the people to whom he’s closest.

In this passage, David demonstrates a certain amount of self-awareness by acknowledging his own ability to deceive both himself and others. However, this is an observation he’s apparently only capable of making in retrospect, a fact that once more demonstrates his talent at fully deceiving himself when it matters most. This technique of coping, Baldwin suggests, is only temporary—although David was able to suppress his feelings at the time, as an adult he now realizes the gravity of his own self-deception and poor treatment of Joey.

As David thinks about his past, he suspects that he wasn’t as ignorant or naïve as he would have liked to think at the time. Although he left home to “find himself,” he now recognizes that the very fact that he wanted to do this was an indication that he understood  he was hiding something from himself. However, it’s much different to acknowledge this in retrospect than it is to realize it in the moment, which is why he was able to travel to France to seek a new form of freedom without admitting to himself what he really wanted. Instead of recognizing that his move to France was an attempt to embrace a lifestyle as a gay or bisexual man, he tricked himself into thinking that he was simply embarking upon a new adventure. In turn, Baldwin once again shows readers just how adept David is at deceiving himself.