Essay - Homosexuality: an Analysis of James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room Introduction to...

Homosexuality: an Analysis of James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room

Introduction to James Baldwin

Ask any "PK"; they'll tell you that, on *****p ***** the four odds that were stacked against him as a child, James Baldwin had *****e additional card piled up against *****. As for the first *****: 1) he was born a black child in Harlem, New York, in 1924, not a time nor a place renowned for an abundance of opportunities for a bright *****ng man; 2) he was ***** illegitimate child of a dirt poor domestic worker; 3) ***** was the oldest of 9 children; 4) when he was three, his mom married a hard, cruel, and brutally strict fa*****r who fancied himself a storefront preacher. And the "PK" card - the preacher kid role - getting out of the way of ***** dad's fists was one thing, but living up to expectations of the congregation, and ***** community, has its own unique challenges, its prejudices, its moments when a PK wants to rage, "I'm just like ***** other kid - get off my back with that 'minister's son' oratory."

***** the age of 14, for about three years, James too was a pre*****cher, following (trembling?) in his father's footsteps, but at 17, he gave ***** the pulpit, left home, and went to work on ***** New Jersey railroad. He was 19 when his dad died ***** a mental institution, but by that *****, James, ***** had been a vor*****cious reader for five *****, ***** set his sights on a life of letters. "Those three years in the pulpit," he would later recall, "I didn't realize it then; that is what turned me *****to a wr*****er, re*****lly, dealing with all ***** anguish and that despair ***** that beauty."

***** began writing full time in 1943, reviewing books and ***** essays in The ***** Leader, The Nati*****, Commentary, and Partisan Review. And shortly thereafter, James met well*****known author Richard Wright ***** Greenwich Vill*****; ***** helped James achieve a Rosenwald Fellowship in 1948 - to provide financial support while James finished ***** first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain. James ***** ***** novel in Paris, where he had relocated in 1948 ***** free himself from the ugly reality of racism ***** America, from fresh and painful memories of a friend's suicide, and to lighten ***** load of his own provocative sexual preferences.

Giovanni's Room - the critiques ***** reviews

***** starting off ***** the bang of a firecracker on the Fourth of July with ***** Tell It on ***** Mountain (1953) - a book based on *****' experiences as a young ***** teenage preacher, which was widely praised by critics ***** al*****g came two books ***** tabooed themes of homosexuality and interracial relationships, Notes of a Native Son, and Giovanni's *****. To literary critics and many of his *****s, these books were shockers. It ***** ***** one more card ***** up on James: he was born poor, illegitimate, black, in Harlem, a ***** to a vicious father -