James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room: Function of Parents in the Identity Struggle James Baldwin's novel, Giovanni's Room presents the struggle of accepting homosexuality as one young man's true identity. One way in which Baldwin presents this issue is through the character David and the forces of his father and dead mother. David's father has an idealized vision of his son as rough and masculine which leads David to reject his homosexual identity. He feels his homosexuality inhibits him from becoming the rough and masculine man his father desires. David's father fuels his son's struggle of accepting homosexuality as true identity by expressing his ideal son as independent and rugged; and his looming mother symbolizes David's true homosexual identity and his inability to escape it. David cannot accept homosexuality as his true identity because he feels that it goes against the definition of a "man" as described by his father. David feels this way because he overheard his father tell his aunt Ellen the following: "All I want for David is that he grow up to be a man. And when I say a man, Ellen, I don't mean a Sunday school teacher" (24). Baldwin seems to suggest that his father wants David to have manly experiences like working hard and exploring the nature of women. He doesn't want David to become a stiff and sheltered man like a Sunday school teacher. After hearing his father say that, David feels that he has to hide his homosexuality. His efforts to hide and deny his homosexuality propel him farther into his struggle to accept his true identity. David's struggle mounts when he hides his true identity from his father and tries to deny his homosexuality to himself. Because David refuses to accept the fact that he is gay, he constantly struggles to find a way to make himse...
