Giovanni's Room

David spends a considerable portion of this section remembering the early spring streets of Paris and recalling the change in the weather: “Every morning the sky and the sun seemed to be a little higher and the river stretched before us with a greater haze of promise” (77). Baldwin uses the changing seasons to mimic the changing states of David and Giovanni’s relationship. Conventionally, springtime symbolizes new beginnings and growth, and this is the time of year when Giovanni and David’s relationship begins. David describes their early relationship as being full of “joy and amazement which was newborn each day” (75), like the changing landscape outside. The people of Paris also change when they shed their layers of clothes in the spring so that their “bodies appeared to be undergoing a most striking and continual metamorphosis” (77). Spring brings not only transformation but new vulnerability, which David connects to his relationship with Giovanni.

In this chapter, Baldwin explores the symbol of Giovanni’s room, especially David’s association of the room with confinement. Although David admits to enjoying his affair with Giovanni, he constantly plots to “escape his room” (77) with money from America and to leave Giovanni behind. David believes he is trapped in the room with Giovanni out of necessity, not out of intention, because his father refuses to release his money. The room, as small as it is, creates a proximity between the men, forcing David to confront his repressed sexuality on a constant basis. He feels “relieved to be alone” (83) and away from the room because it reminds him of the “terror over the question of my life” (83). In his alone time, David writes to his father and Hella consistently, looking for a way out of the living situation.

One of David’s central character traits is his secrecy, which manifests both as outright lies and frequent speechlessness. As David describes the early days of his relationship with Giovanni, he reveals the usually one-sided nature of their conversations. Giovanni talks openly and at length about any topic, but David sees that “even at my most candid, even when I tried hardest to give myself to him as he gave himself to me, I was holding something back” (78). David feels himself pulling away from Giovanni “with all [his] strength” (82) because being emotionally intimate would make their relationship definitive. David believes it will be harder to write off his attraction to Giovanni as lust—and harder to leave him when Hella returns—if he is too emotionally invested.

Giovanni connects the motif of Americanness to the concept of over-thinking. As exemplified by Hella and David, Giovanni believes Americans spend too much time thinking about their actions and how they will be perceived rather than acting decisively. He considers Hella’s flight to Spain silly and dramatic, and he views David’s fears about being “found out” by Hella “extremely feverish and complicated” (81). David defends himself by stating he grew up in America where being gay is illegal, so his worry about the “dirty words for—for this situation” (81) is justified, but Giovanni dismisses this line of thought. For Giovanni, David cannot see the simplicity and practicality of being together in private while also having Hella as a mistress because his Americanness forces him to complicate all situations.

David worries Giovanni “had awakened an itch” (83) inside him that makes him look upon other men with the same affection he has for Giovanni. This awakened “beast” (84) is David’s natural attraction to men that he had been trying to repress and run from his entire life. The negative connotation in his choice of metaphors shows how dangerous David considers this part of himself. David begins to project his self-hatred onto Giovanni: The more he comes to love Giovanni, the more he comes to hate him. In a vision, David sees himself becoming like Jacques and chasing down any beautiful boy who passes him by, making him feel “sorrow and shame and panic and great bitterness” (84). In distancing himself from Giovanni to avert this prophecy, David undermines his chances of happiness.