In his article ‘James Baldwin: Expatriation, Homosexuality and Man’s Estate’ (2000), Mae Henderson makes the argument that James Baldwin chose the location and characters of Giovanni’s Room for a very specific and intentional purpose. Especially when looking at the race of the characters, Henderson claims that Baldwin was able to focus more on the issues of expatriation and homosexuality rather than on race. Although Baldwin received criticism for not including black characters in the novel, Henderson makes the argument that Baldwin looked to get away from the pressures of writing about race by having the characters all be white and the location takes place in Paris. The purpose of this focus away from race allowed Baldwin to examine ideas of the complicated culture of the United States, and its overall ideas regarding masculinity and sexuality inside and outside of its borders. 

Throughout the article, Henderson makes reference to the complicated colonial past of the United States. According to Henderson, the narrator, David is able to look back at the US once arriving in France and see not only his own history but the history of his country. Like his ancestors, whose violence and violation have claimed a continent and destroyed an indigenous people, David’s emotional violence and moral violations have wrought destruction, not only to others but to himself as well” (Henderson 315). In this way David looks back at his past through the eyes of a man whose ancestors “destroyed” a continent. David sees this destruction as a loss of innocence, maybe looking at a bit of foreshadowing later when he sees his own innocence being lost. However, the reason that he feels that his innocence is lost is because of the culture within the country that brought so much destruction. To sum up this point, David states “My ancestors conquered a continent pushing across death- laden plains, until they came to an ocean faced away from Europe into a darker past” (Baldwin 7). David makes it clear that he feels a guilt about what his ancestors did to the North American continent and the people that were on it before their arrival. Again, this loss of innocence is not something that David can shake and it will be a source of guilt throughout the novel on a more personal level. In many ways, this whole idea would be lost had Baldwin not made the character of David a white American. He would not have been able to express this feeling of guilt and he would not have been able to look at his ancestral past the same way if he had been black. This gives the reader a different perspective and brings up the complicated ideas of both personal guilt and ancestral guilt.

In many ways David is a representation of the United States and Giovanni is a representation of Europe. This is not really talking about the continents themselves, but the experience level that both continents have in the world. The United States is a pretty young country, and it looks at itself as this innocent, almost naive country that was meant to bring good things once it was created. Europe is the older, more experienced continent that has left these childish ideas behind and just accepted itself for who it is. Henderson digs deeper into this kind of symbolism when he talks about how David sees himself in relation to his innocence. Henderson states “In a world where men are children, the classic Jamesian expatriate confrontation between American innocence and European experience can only be superficial at best; yet David is represented as the Anglo American who seeks - no matter the price and against all odds - to preserve that innocence. In this way Henderson is referring to the innocence that covers up David’s homosexuality. The Anglo- American here is seen as the person with who views themselves as having the right intentions. They came to the continent looking for a better life to practice their religions and even though they saw themselves as moral, deep down their intentions were not innocent. This is also what David represents, throughout the book David pretends to be this moral person who is always looking to block out the fact that he is attracted to other men. He wants to remain ‘innocent’ and be the ‘masculine’ man to raise a family and be with Hella. In this way how the United States started out and how, in many ways, it still sees itself. Europe on the other hand, represented by Giovanni, does not look to hide itself. Being such an experienced continent, Europe, and Giovanni, just accept who they are and have learned that hiding it does no good. Unlike David, Giovanni is not looking for his ‘innocence’ but just wants to find some kind of joy in the world that is so full of sadness. Just like the theme of guilt with his ancestors, Baldwin could not really explore this theme properly with characters who are not white. Having two people that came from Europe allows Baldwin to explore different types of symbolism and relate it back to acceptance of their sexuality. In this way Baldwin can look back at the history of these countries and continents through the lens of two people who represent them both. Overall, because the author did not use all of  his own personal experiences to shape the story, it may have had a larger impact on the reader. The reason this had a larger impact on the reader is because he did not have to talk about racism and race and he could focus completely on sexuality. If Baldwin chose to use a black man, in the 1950s in Paris, there is a very high chance that the characters would have experienced more than just homophobia. Because he chose to make this a very controversial choice for David to be a white man, he was able to focus completely on sexuality and the complicated past of the United States. 

Baldwin tackles the idea of being gay in another culture and another country by portraying the massive struggles that are faced by the main character, David.  He grapples with his sexuality in the 1950’s in Paris while simultaneously looking back at the colonial history of the United States. Baldwin masterfully uses these two areas of the globe to symbolize both their own struggles and the struggles that David is going through as he comes to terms with his own innocence and sexuality. Baldwin leaves out some very complex parts of his own identity but uses enough of his own experiences to shed light on how it can be complex for many people to figure out their sexual identity. 

Citations:

Henderson, Mae  G. James Baldwin: Expatriation, Homosexual Panic, and Man’s Estate, 2000, jstor.org/stable/3299564?searchText=giovanni%27s+room&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dgiovanni%2527s%2Broom&ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_search_gsv2%2Fcontrol&refreqid=fastly-default%3A9d8e1f39be269c12f57faf46d9a81227&seq=1.