Overview of the book and background on the author. What prompted James Baldwin to write this book were the current events of the time and his personal life.

1. James Baldwin’s
Giovanni’s Room
Stephanie Brown
ENG227-DH
Prof. Nancy Teel
December 9, 2013

2. Jim Crow Laws

3. Jim Crow Laws
Ever since Europeans first arrived on the North American continent five centuries ago it has been
public policy that this was to be a white man's country. This policy has found expression in a
four‑fold program:
1. Extermination of the native American Indians, with the tribal remnants confined to desert
reservations as wards of the government.
2. Exclusion of Asian, African, and other colored immigrants as unassimilable.
3. Segregation, including legal prohibitions against the marriage of Negroes and other
non‑Caucasians with white persons.
4. Discrimination, sometimes of genocidal proportions, against various minorities.
And so you can see that other guides, irresponsibly recommending hotels, restaurants, tours,
entertainment, and so on, without taking into account the existing taboos, can actually get you
killed.

4. The Jim Crow Laws was enacted between 1876 and 1965. It was a ranks
system based solely on race that was hold most strongly in the southern
states. It was a set of legislation that was geared towards implementing
anti-black racism, exacerbate the socioeconomic disparities African-
Americans faced, and to keep the races segregated.
Jim Crow Laws

5. Jim Crow Laws
Rules that blacks were to observe in communication with whites (Kennedy):
● Never assert or even intimate that a white person is lying.
● Never impute dishonorable intentions to a white person.
● Never suggest that a white person is from an inferior class.
● Never lay claim to, or overly demonstrate, superior knowledge or
intelligence.
● Never curse a white person.
● Never laugh derisively at a white person
● Never comment upon the appearance of a white female.

6. James Baldwin
Born in Harlem on August 2, 1924. He grew
up in the time of the Jim Crow Laws.
American novelist,essayist, playwright,
poet, and social critic.
Grandson of a slave
(1924-1987)

7. Awards and Honors
Eugene Saxton Fellowship, 1944;
Rosen Fellowship, 1948;
Guggenheim Fellowship, 1954;
Partisan Review Fellowship, 1956;
National Institute of Arts and Letters
Award, 1956;
Ford Foundation Grant, 1959;
Certificate of recognition from the
National Conference on Christians
and Jews, 1961;
George Polk Memorial Award, 1963.
James Baldwin
(1924-1987)
American novelist,essayist, playwright,
poet, and social critic.

8. New York Riots
Harlem’s most destructive riots, in 1935 and 1943 were set off by a combination of hearsay and
tense social conditions. Locals in the community answered back aggressively against the very
circumstances frequently represented in the music , art, and writings of the Harlem Renaissance

9. New York Riots
Harlem’s most destructive riots, in 1935 and 1943 were set off by a combination of hearsay and
tense social conditions. Locals in the community answered back aggressively against the very
circumstances frequently represented in the music , art, and writings of the Harlem Renaissance

10. Civil Rights movement starts in 1955 after Emmett
Till was murdered for whistling at a white woman in
Mississippi. Also in 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to
give up her seat to a white passenger.

11. Civil Rights movement starts in 1955 after Emmett Till
was murdered for whistling at a white woman in
Mississippi. Also in 1955, Rosa Parks refuses to give
up her seat to a white passenger.

12. ARE HOMOSEXUALS BECOMING
RESPECTABLE? (Jet Magazine April 15,
1954)
IS THERE HOPE FOR HOMOSEXUALS?
(JET MAGAZINE AUG 7, 1952)

15. Early Years
During his teenage years in Harlem and Greenwich Village, Baldwin started to
realize that he was gay. Living in Greenwich Village and out with his
homosexuality; spending less time in the ghettos of Harlem and more in the
Village. The constraints and prejudice surrounding homosexuality and race
began to eat away at Baldwin. Being a black man was hard enough and the
religious backing of sexual orientation discrimination motivated his desire to
move out of the U.S.

16. In 1948, Baldwin left the
United States and departed
to Paris, France.
He left the United States hoping to
escape the despair felt by many
African-American men in New York
and to come to terms with his
sexual mixed feelings. He also
escaped to not be taken as "merely a
Negro; or, even, merely a Negro
writer".

17. In 1949, Baldwin met Lucien Happersberger and fell in love.
Baldwin, Far
Left;
Happersberger,
Far Right

18. But after several years, they ended their relationship. Baldwin was devastated
that Lucien had left him to marry a woman. It’s assumed that Giovanni’s Room
was drawn from this relationship. Baldwin dedicated Giovanni's Room to
Lucien.
Baldwin, Far
Left;
Happersberger,
Far Right

19. Author: James Baldwin
Country: United States
Language: English
Genre: Novel
Publisher: Dial Press, N.Y.
Publication date: 1956
Media type: Print (Hardback
&Paperback)
Pages: 159 pp

20. Setting
Brooklyn, NY

21. Setting
Paris, France

22. Paris, France
Giovanni’s Room in South France
Setting

23. Characters
David: Narrator
Giovanni: Bartender, David’s lover
Hella: David’s traveling girlfriend
Jacques: A wealthy older American businessman who likes entertaining
young gay men
Guillaume: The owner of gay bar in Paris; wealthy; well-known family
bloodline in Paris
David’s father: Sole caretaker of David; would often come home drunk and,
as David grew older, he realized that his father would often spend nights with
various women.
Joey: David's friend and first sexual encounter when in Coney Island,
Brooklyn
David’s dead mother: Died when he was five. Has no memory of her.

24. Point of View
First Person (Central)
Giovanni's Room is told by a man named David, from a house in the south of
France.

25. Plot
Brooklyn
He grew up without a mother, and his relationship with his father was trouble. In this first setting
David had a romp in the sheets with his friend named Joey. After the encounter, David became
ashamed of what happened and buried that part of his life from his family. Moving forward, David
stayed distant and secretive from his family and himself. In search of something else, David decided to
leave New York and moved to Paris.
Giovanni
The attraction between Giovanni and David is so intense, though, that it consumes him. He
cannot help but get entangled with Giovanni, and the result is that, as he waits for Hella(a
girlfriend that he proposed to before she went to live in Spain for a while), to return, his
situation is ripe with conflict.

26. Hella returns and accepts David's proposal
Hella returns and even though David warned Giovanni that she would eventually return, before then
they lived in complete denial until the day she did return. David avoids Jacques and Giovanni the first
few days Hella is in town, until the day that they bump into both of them. Hella sees the distraught
look on Giovanni’s face and hears from Jacques and Giovanni of Davids disappearing act. Hella later
questions David about Giovanni and David tries to deter her questions.

27. Climax
David leaves Giovanni
David returns to Giovanni's apartment and declares his plans to leave him. Giovanni is in tears.
Giovanni reveals his secrets from his past that had propelled him into his feelings of desperation and
despair.

28. Giovanni loses his place in his social circle and then kills Guillaume
After going to Guillaume’s to try to seduce him to get his job back, he’s humiliated after Guillaume
denies his request. Enraged, Giovanni strangles him what a clothe.

29. Outed!!!
After Giovanni is on the run, David is left feeling guilty and tormented. He
wakes up one night from a nightmare, Hella asks to help him, and pushes her
away.
He begins distancing himself from her.
David goes to Nice and finds a sailor. They spend a few nights together. They
end up at a bar one night and as David looks up at a mirror at the bar he sees
Hella’s reflection. She confesses that she knew for a long time about him but
becomes angry that he wasn’t honest and wasted her time.
They get back home, she packs, and they share one last drink before her cabs
comes to get her.

30. Themes

31. Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room, caused controversy when it was first
published due to it’s graphic homoerotic content.
Giovanni's Room is significant for bringing complex representations of
homosexuality to a reading public with empathy and artistry, thereby
stimulating a broader public dialogue on issues pertaining to homosexual
desire.

32. Works Cited
Aberjhani & West, Sandra L. (2003). Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, p. 144-45. Facts On File
Harlem riot of 1943 reports, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library
Kennedy, Stetson. Jim Crow Guide: The Way It Was. Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic University Press, 1959/1990, pp.
216-117.
Myrdal, G. (1944). An American dilemma: the Negro problem and modern democracy. New York, NY: Harper.
Baldwin, James (1956). “Giovanni’s Room”. New York, Dial Press, 1956.
Baldwin, James (1953). Notes of a Native Son. http://english.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/baldwin-native-son.
original.pdf.web
Public Broadcasting Service. "James Baldwin: About the author". American Masters. 29 November 2006.
Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 10: James Baldwin." PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference
Guide. URL:http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap10/baldwin.html
Sidéris, Georges. “Folles, Swells, Effeminates, and Homophiles in Saint- Germain-des-Prés of the 1950s: A New
“Precious” Society?” Translated by Michael Sibalis. In Homosexuality in French History and Culture, edited by
Jeffrey Merrick and Michael Sibalis, 219-232. New York: Harrington Park Press, 2001.

33. fin