Giovanni s Room By James Baldwin - 1723 Words

The two novels Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin published in 1956 and Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith published in 1956 share the interest of both the main characters having trouble publicizing their sexual orientation due to the way society would view them. There location of living have a big impact on their actions of expressing their sexuality towards other people or themselves. During the 1950’s, homosexual activity was prohibited. People who were found having an affair with the same sex was often given a consequence for their actions. Even though, gay men were given more of an punishment, lesbianism was not supported or approved of by the public eye. Regardless of the danger, gay men and women were able to find places to meet up†¦show more content†¦He met Giovanni in a gay bar that was owned by one of his friends named Guillaume. David kindly offered to buy Giovanni a drink and they hit it off with each other since then. Paris was known for having a h igh population in the LGBT community. There was a lot of bars, clubs, restaurants, and shops (Wikipedia 2015, para. 2). When David bought Giovanni drinks at Guillaume s bar, other men took notice of their interaction with each other. It wasn’t hard to tell that they had an instant attraction towards each other. Once he noticed that people were looking at them, he stopped instantly. Though David was already publicizing his sexual orientation from being in the bar, he couldn’t come to realization for himself nor to others. As he stated to Giovanni, â€Å"It is a crime - in my country, and, after all, I didn’t grow up here, I grew up there†(Baldwin 45). Though David was in Paris where it wasn’t looked upon as much, he still believed that it was morally wrong for two same sex genders to be together; especially since he knew his family wouldn’t accept him for it. David showed his lack of acceptance through the rejection of Giovanni’s affec tion. Since Paris was known for city life and being accompanied by a lot of people, there was various amounts of transportations. David and Giovanni mainly took cabs/taxis as there way around to places. One of the few places