Essay topics: Write your essay on only one of the following topics and write the topic number in
parentheses after the title of your essay
1. Compare how Edith Wharton and James Baldwin use description to create atmosphere in their novels, Summer and Giovanni’s Room, respectively.
2. Compare how love and intimacy are presented in Edith Wharton’s and James Baldwin’s novels, Summer and Giovanni’s Room, respectively.
3. Compare how the theme of escape is presented in Edith Wharton’s and James Baldwin’s novels, Summer and Giovanni’s Room, respectively.
4. Edith Wharton’s and James Baldwin’s novels, Summer and Giovanni’s Room, are about the transgression of the main protagonists. Argue for or against this point by comparing this theme in both novels.
5. Discuss how men and masculinity are represented in Edith Wharton’s and James Baldwin’s novel, Summer and Giovanni’s Room, respectively.
6. What is the difference in the presentation of the woman in Edith Wharton’s novel, Summer and James Baldwin’s novel, Giovanni’s Room, respectively?
This lesson focuses on the setting and main themes in James Baldwin’s novel, Giovanni’s Room. The novel follows David, a man who struggles to accept his sexuality. Updated: 07/19/2020
Away From Home
Imagine having to hide your true identity for fear of being judged. In James Baldwin’s novel, Giovanni’s Room, that is what the protagonist, David, must face. After struggling to come to terms with his sexuality, David decides to escape everything he knows and travel to Paris, France. The setting, which refers to the place where the story unfolds, is the French capital during the 1950s. However, parts of the story also takes place in Brooklyn, where David grew up, as well as in the South of France, where he lives for a brief time with Hella.
The title does specify a very important place for the story: Giovanni’s room. As David’s feelings for Giovanni grow stronger, they spend more time together and it is in Giovanni’s room where the two are free from judgement; where they are able to exist in a different way. This room also shows what David could have had with Giovanni, had the novel’s themes not been an impediment.
Main Themes
What is the central point of Baldwin’s novel? This question identifies the theme of the novel, which can be seen as the main idea or message that the author conveys to the reader. In Giovanni’s Room different themes develop from David’s story-line: sexual identity and guilt as well as isolation.
Sexual Identity and Guilt
David is confused and ashamed of his sexuality, which is perhaps the most obvious theme in the novel. David remembers a summer in Brooklyn, when he first kissed another boy, Joey. That event deeply shamed him and led him to later bully Joey. There is also a complicated relationship between David and his father. He knows he can never reveal his true identity to his dad, which is one of the reasons why he decides to go to Paris. His father makes him feel guilty of his identity, a feeling that resurfaces in France after David receives his dad’s letters
