Giovanni's Room

Giovanni’s room and home are two central symbols in the text. How do these two symbols intersect? How do Giovanni and David view these symbols differently, and what tension does that cause?

Although David continually has affairs with men—whether he remembers them or not—he believes he is entirely different from men like Jacques or Guillaume. What does David believe separates him from “le milieu” who frequent bars like Guillaume’s? How does he try to maintain this distance even when in an open relationship with Giovanni?

How are the various characters in Giovanni’s Room understood through their national or continental identities? What are the limitations of these understandings? What conflicts do these perceived national differences cause between characters?

How does David’s unreliability as a narrator shape the reader’s understanding of events and our judgments of characters? What do David’s lapses in memory—intentional or not—reveal to the reader about David’s character that he himself doesn’t see?

David understands Paris’s “underworld” through a division of young men and older, lonely men who have mutual relationships of survival. Where does David place himself within this delineation? How does his understanding of his place change over the course of the book?

How does David’s attempts to avoid and control his fears—of his attraction to men—of turning into a desperate man like Jacques, of not being seen as a man—make these fears come true? Could David have prevented these outcomes? Why or why not? What does this say about the controllable and uncontrollable aspects of life and identity?

How does structuring Giovanni’s Room around memories deepen the tragedy of the narrative’s finale? Would the narrative be as impactful without David’s retroactive revelations about his identity and actions? Why or why not? What other techniques does Baldwin employ to amplify the story’s tragedy?

Giovanni claims that David’s paranoia about his outward purity stops him from loving anyone or having emotions of any kind (141). How does David’s hyper-vigilance of his appearance and actions ruin not only his relationships with men, but his friendships, his family relationships, and his heterosexual relationships?