Love In Giovanni's Room By James Baldwin

Giovanni’s Room Love is a funny thing, it doesn’t always turn out the way we want it too and we can’t choose who we love. The main theme of James Baldwin’s story “Giovanni’s Room” is that love is difficult, scary, and not always what you expect. Although many people thrive on the love they feel for someone, David finds it to be a terrifying and confusing thing. In “Giovanni’s Room” David is reflecting on how he found love when he less expected it and was afraid, saddened, and even a little ashamed by it. As a young man David had encountered his first romantic experience with a boy named Joey. Joey was David’s best friend up until the night that he and Joey slept together. Come the next morning he was so ashamed that it had happened he began to treat Joey in a mean manner. He had never told Hella, his girlfriend, of this and nor would he ever. David decided to purpose to Hella before she left for Spain to find herself and her response was that she needed to think about it while she was away. The story begins with David recalling his time in Paris and his times with Giovanni. Giovanni is in prison and about to be executed and Hella is on her way back to America. David left America and can to Paris with very little money. When he gets here he meets up with a wealthy gay man by the name of Jacques. Him and Jacques go

This is when David tells Giovanni about Hella and how he plans to marry her if she will have him. This was in a desperate attempt to resist Giovanni, “Giovanni like to believe he was hard headed and I was not…It was very important for him to feel this: it was because he knew, unwillingly, at the very bottom of his heart, that I, helplessly, at the very bottom of mine, resisted him with all my strength.” (p.82) David and Giovanni both know that Hella will one day return and their romance will have to