Giovanni's Room

Baldwin introduces the titular symbol of Giovanni’s room in Chapter 3. In the taxi ride to Les Halles, Giovanni reveals that he lives in a single room on the outskirts of Paris. Baldwin emphasizes the room’s distance from the prying eyes of “le milieu” when Giovanni says his neighborhood “is almost not Paris” (46) which instills the room with both privacy and secrecy. The room, however, is also a maid’s quarters within a larger house, so it also exists in close proximity to others. The juxtaposition of secrecy and the danger of intrusion informs David’s experience in the room and the anxiety the small space creates. David arrives at the room in the dark after walking down “a short dark corridor” (63) to the back of the building, which further emphasizes the room’s symbolic mystery and the unknown territory of David and Giovanni’s relationship.

David observes Paris, which brings out new feelings of alienation in the old city. As he watches Parisian people pass the taxi window, he observes, “Nothing here reminded me of home” (48). He cannot comment on the Parisians in the same familiar way Jacques, Guillaume, Giovanni, and the taxi driver do. His observations introduce the symbol of home, which for David represents familiarity and comfort. David feels like he is only a “wanderer, [an] adventurer” (62), whereas Giovanni feels comfortable navigating the city. Due to this difference, David comes to associate Giovanni with the enigmatic Paris, which frightens him. He wants to flee back to the comfort of home—both America and the closet—where his identity feels more stable.

Two minor characters appear in this chapter who symbolize David’s paranoia and the pressures of dominant culture. The first character, Madame Clothilde, is a “inimitable and indomitable” (50) woman who represents David’s fears of surveillance. He describes her as typical of French women patrons who would “have no trouble reconstructing every instant of our biographies” (51) with a single look. David feels Madame Clothilde knows everything about his new relationship with Giovanni and his past long before their introduction; David simultaneously feels freed from his need to perform and anxious about his new vulnerability. In the present-day, Baldwin introduces the Italian caretaker who represents dominant heterosexual expectations. She urges David to find a woman, have kids, and settle down, which she believes is the cure for David’s malaise. David, still ashamed of his attraction to men, desires her forgiveness for his divergence from sexual and social norms.

David again notices the divide between young and old customers in the new bar. He explains that the younger men have different performances they use depending on the type of older man they want to extort. David calls these “vache”—hard to get and argumentative—and “chic”—easygoing and gentil. The calculated performances of the young men enhance David’s beliefs concerning the loveless nature of these relationships. Though they appear to have a “tigerish intensity of affection” (59), these displays are only to get money and meals out of Jacques and Guillaume. David realizes Giovanni’s similar proximity to this style of relationship, as Giovanni must endure Guillaume’s advances to keep his job. David connects to Giovanni based on their shared resentment for the “dirty old men” (49) whom they feel tied to for survival.

Jacques calls David out for his self-deception during their conversation at the new bar. Although David denies his attractions to Giovanni, Jacques forces David to see the weakness of his feigned ignorance. Jacques believes David’s continued attempts to conceal his desires are cruel and immoral not only to himself, but to those around him. When David tries to mock Jacques’s sexuality, Jacques observes that David too has fleeting flings with men, only David “pretend[s] nothing is happening down there” (56) and represses his feelings and memories. Jacques finds this equally as loathsome because David socially profits from public displays of contempt for gay men while secretly using them to achieve his desires. By the end of their conversation, David gives up his futile performance of tolerance, but continues to feel like his attraction to men and Giovanni is somehow not true to his real identity.

One of David’s biggest fears is turning into a desperate man like Jacques, but he cannot see how his actions are leading him down the same path. Jacques gives David advice to not “play it safe” (57) while he is young because that resistance will only grow more powerful with time, when “there would be no hope for [him] and [he] would simply be destroyed” (54). Like Aunt Ellen, who wants David to turn out a better man than his father, Jacques wants David to have a better experience than him with his sexuality. David has the opportunity in contemporary France to explore his desires and form lasting relationships, unlike Jacques, whose anxious youth leaves him seeking relationships with “no affection in them” (56) in his older age. David pities Jacques, but his deeply internalized anti-gay bias ultimately causes him to overlook the man’s advice.