Giovanni's Room Study Guide

Giovanni's Room

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Giovanni's Room is the story of an American newlywed, David, and his tumultuous affair with a Parisian bartender named Giovanni while alone on holiday in Paris. The novel is one of the earliest instances of a sympathetic portrayal of homosexual characters in Western literature. David wrestles with his sexual identity and with his marriage, which eventually crumbles. Giovanni himself commits a murder of passion and is executed, shattering David completely.

Giovanni's Room Characters

Table of Contents
  • David , a blond American. The protagonist. His mother died when he was five years old.
  • Hella , David's girlfriend. They met in a bar in Saint-Germain-des-PrĂ©s. She is from Minneapolis and moved to Paris to study painting, until she threw in the towel and met David by serendipity.
  • Giovanni , an Italian boy, who left his village after his girlfriend gave birth to a dead child. He works as a waiter in Guillaume's gay bar.
  • Joey . He lived in Coney Island, Brooklyn. David's first homosexual experience was with him.
  • Ellen , David's paternal aunt. She would read books and knit; at parties she would dress skimpily, with too much make-up on. She worried that David's father was an inappropriate influence on David's development.
  • Beatrice , a woman David's father sees.
  • the fairy , whom David met at the army, and who was later discharged for being gay.
  • Jacques , an old American businessman, born in Belgium.
  • Guillaume , the owner of a gay bar in Paris.
  • the flaming princess , an older man who tells David inside the gay bar that Giovanni is very dangerous.
  • Madame Clothilde , the owner of the restaurant in Les Halles.
  • Pierre , a man at the restaurant.
  • Yves , a tall, pockmarked man playing the pinball machine in the restaurant.
  • the caretaker in the South of France. She was born in Italy and moved to France as a child. Her husband's name is Mario; they lost all their money in the Second World War, and two of their three sons died. Their living son has a son, also named Mario.
  • Sue , a blonde girl from Philadelphia that comes from a rich family and with whom David has a brief and regretful sexual encounter.
  • David's father , His relationship with David is masked by artificial heartiness; he cannot bear to acknowledge that they are not close and he might have failed in raising his son. He married for the second time after David is grown but before the action in the novel takes place.

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