Giovanni Must Die James Baldwin Analysis

James Baldwin’s literary masterpiece, Giovanni’s Room, fits the formulas of queer pulp fiction found predominantly in the 1940’s to 1970’s. Since the topic of homosexuality was then considered taboo and widely unacceptable by the government, publishers were hesitant to back works about the topic, but nonetheless understood the financial potential of cornering the queer market. In order to both corner the queer market and not appear to endorse portrayals of homosexuality, publishing houses began publishing queer fiction, but forced them to conclude tragically. Formulaically, one, or both, of the members of a queer couple would die by the end of the story, and the surviving member of the couple is assumed to return to a heteronormative lifestyle. The death of queer love

Sexuality rights is often overlooked in history especially in the 20th century as not many historians talked about the inequality for gays and lesbians therefore it is hard to say this form of inequality shaped the United States. Gay liberation can be linked to feminism as in the 1960s homosexuals also stood up for their own rights in the fight against inequality. Throughout the 20th century gay and lesbians were described as “sinful or mentally disordered”, as it was illegal in most states, seen as irregular and against the traditional American values of heterosexual marriages. McCarthyism pronounced gays to be a source of “national weakness” a focal point that caused controversy around gays and lesbians. Carl Wittman declared a Gay Manifesto stating how San Francisco is a “refugee camp for homosexuals” a place where people had fled from “blackmailing cops, from families who disowned or “tolerated” us”, it shows the inequality as gay people were treated horribly but of fear of abuse has to pretend “everything was OK”.

Elizabeth warns Mr. Hooper that she will not marry him if he wears the veil; however, he does not take it off even for love. “It had separated [Mr. Hooper] from cheerful brotherhood and woman’s love, and kept him in the saddest of prisons, his own heart ;…”( 312) is a quote that justifies how the veil caused him great grief. His secret beneath the veil had restricted him from loving again. Elizabeth

In contrast, George and Hazel in the short story cannot even identify the obstacle that they are facing with their lives. This is evident when Hazel suggests George take his bad down, he refuses by saying that when “[people] get away with it, and pretty soon [they’d be right back to the dark ages again,” and Hazel agreed. Sadly, they are so passionate about “equality”, that they are blind about that fact that they are suffering. In conclusion, both “”Warren Pryor” and “Harrison Bergeron” illustrate the danger of overly controlling humanity.

Another common theme in is that the why can change people’s opinion on controversial topics. Throughout Fahrenheit 451, Montag’s stance on why books are important to their society shifts. Faber tells Montag, “Don 't ask for guarantees. And don 't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were headed for shore.”

(…) She wants me dead John, you know it!” (Miller 57). Even when Elizabeth pleads to John, warning him, he still shrugs it off as nothing, because he believes his extramarital affair wasn’t a big deal, this also ties into his arrogance in believing that no harm can come to his family. Any sane person would realize the potential outcome and try to reason with him about the accusations.

Also in Act 4, he was highly conflicted over whether or not to confess to working with the devil to escape death. In the end, he decided lying was a sin he did not want to commit and chose to die a honest man rather than survive as a deceptive man. So in the end it is clear to see that John Proctor still is a good man despite his short-lived affair with Abigail. He was an honest, good-hearted man who wished for nothing more than to live a good life with his wife and children.

Then he gave no respect to Tom and Daisy’s marriage, which didn’t help him out in the long run. Finally by not telling the truth and covering for Daisy is the main reason why his downfall is on himself. Given these few examples about why I think Gatsby’s downfall should be blamed on himself, who do you think was the blame for Gatsby’s downfall? Work Cited Fritzgerald,

Throughout the novel, Gatsby is regarded as a self-made gentleman who doesn’t drink at his own parties due to his morals. However in this passage, through the descriptions and reflections of Nick the reader discovers how Daisy’s love had corrupted his morals. Before coming to the East, Gatsby’s aspiration was to achieve the American Dream but in this passage we discover the fact after his love with Daisy, all he ever wanted was to win Daisy as if she was an award of excellence. He keeps trying blindly as “he did not know that is was already behind him, somewhere in that vast obscurity beyond the city”. This quote supports the claim as Gatsby is being ignorant to the truth as he is not willing comprehend the fact that he could not accomplish his only goal in life.

Since during Renaissance literature period, “Sodometry” has been around a critical approach and buggery was punishable by hanging until 1861. (Sutherland, 2014) Shakespeare might not take himself homosexual for risking his own life. In addition, the sonnets that Shakespeare wrote are basically expressed his personal feelings to the young man but not intended to be published. Even though Shakespeare was famous during his lifetime, people might not know about his homosexual trait.

"Of mice and men" a novel by John Steinbeck which will be discussed in this paragraph evaluating two specific points, one of them is that George did the right thing by killing Lennie for many circumstances to be discussed later; and the second is about George was not supposed to kill Lennie under any reason because the life of every human being must be respected by every person in the world. George, seeing that Lennie did not have the ability to live on his own, always got into very serious problems and seeing that neither of them could get ahead because of those motives as you can see in the next quote: "I done a real bad thing," he said. "I shouldn 't of did that. George 'll be mad.

But that doesn’t seem like a good enough reason to change a big part of the novel. Taking out the “n-word” would not only be taking out some of the history but also some meaning and significance of the novel. Many readers see To Kill a Mockingbird as a racist book because it shows the whole truth about that time period. The “n-word” was just part of everyone’s vocabulary back then it was used many times even in the same few sentences like when Atticus’ daughter Scout asks: “Do you defend niggers, Atticus?” (pg 77).

Due to this, he failed to see the consequences of his decisions, which ended up being his ruin. His imperceptive state of mind comes through when he confronts Tom about himself and Daisy, the passage states, “She looked at him blindly. ‘Why— how could I love him— possibly?’ ‘You never loved him.’ She hesitated” (131-132).

In one of our course readings titled “On Being Included” by Sara Ahmed, Ahmed writes about “institutional flows” and how diversity practitioners sensed that they were going against the flow when trying to address issues of racism. “The wall symbolizes institutional immobility and an institutional “no”. (pp. 129, 176). Ahmed describes diversity activists as “being in complicated and messy situations” based on the 21 interviews as well as her own experiences (pp. 7, 10). She states that they want to get universities, as institutions to not only acknowledge, but discuss and act on issues of racism diversity.

In Giovanni’s room, James Baldwin uses a lot of literary devices such as foreshadowing, flashbacks, making this book an important book to teach to high schoolers. For example, he also used imagery when describing his situation with Joey. His change in tone showed how quickly he realized that what he was doing was wrong, and he wanted to fix it. His emotion changed from affection towards Joey into shame. Flashbacks are constantly used in this book, making it a bit confusing as well.