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The history of homosexuality and its negative impact on society
The history of homosexuality and its negative impact on society
The history of homosexuality and its negative impact on society
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Americas Ignorance
America’s Ignorance
For centuries now, men and women have struggled over their sexuality. It has been noted throughout time that several well known and highly regarded historical figures have been free with their sexuality on both sides of the spectrum. Basically, homosexual tendencies have been accepted as a normal part of life in that it has never been regarded as wrong. Only now in our new environment as Americans does the idea of homosexuality bring uncomfort and distaste to people. In fact, American has almost pushed the homosexual populous underground where they now reside as somewhat of a subculture. Americans have put a huge strain on the gay community by persecuting them and demanding that their way of life is wrong. This phenomenon is particularly prevalent in the middle class American society; at least it was a lot more in the past. The novel Giovanni’s Room, written by James Baldwin, depicts a young man caught in the troublesome situation of being a gay American in the middle twentieth century. The character, David, accepts his homosexuality as a boy, but soon learns that his sexual behavior is highly frowned upon by most Americans. With this understanding of homosexual resentment in America, David sets off for Paris in search of an escape from the turmoil’s that lay at home. David cannot and does not accept his homosexuality because of the ingrained middle class American attitude towards homosexuals.
David’s father, although not resentful of gay people, wants David to become a man. A man in the classic sense of a man, and certainly not a homosexual man:
‘And listen,’ said my father suddenly, from the middle of the staircase, in a voice which frightened me, ‘all I want for David is that he grows up to be a man. And when I say man, Ellen, I don’t mean a Sunday school teacher.’
David’s father was not suggesting that David was not a man, but our society has set forth preconceived notions about what it means to be a man. When David heard this from his father, he felt as though by being gay, he was somehow disappointing his father. This idea certainly scared David into thinking that his homosexual feelings were bad. Later in Paris, David was able to escape the direct tension that he felt, but his worries still lingered and he fought to become the person that he thought he should be:
Loving God and hating his own mother kept David strong. David loved God, he prayed every night to God. He hated his mother so much he wanted to outthink her tricks, he did. He used different tactics like over exaggerating his pain when he got beat, putting a wet cloth over his mouth when his mother put cleaning products in a room with him. David kept counting time in his head in order to make the time pass faster.
...e social changes brought about this period. He cites the growing sensationalism of sex covered in the media as a prime driver behind the sexual orthodoxy in American culture (Chauncey 1994, 359). During this witch hunt, he draws a silver lining. Using the scholarship of others such as John D’Emilio, he cites that this period brought a greater bond to the gay community by forging brotherhood of adversity which would then come back into play in the 1960’s as an experiential touchstone for the Civil Rights era (Chauncey 1994, 360). Chauncey nestles his own narrative of the gay community in New York within the larger narrative of gay life in America filling in the gaps of secondary sources through his own primary work.
A loss of David’s innocence appears during his killing of a magpie. This “it can be done in a flick of the finger”. The particular significance about this plays an important part in his as he considers that he also is capable of committing such unfortunate yet immoral things. “Looking in the dead bird’s eye, I realised that these strange, unthought of connections - sex and death, lust and violence, desire and degradation - are there, there, deep in even a good heart’s chambers”.
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
At the beginning of the Chrysalids, we meet David as a ten-year old boy who has conformed to meet his parent’s strict standards. David then meets a girl named Sophie, who turns out to be a mutant, something he should be frightened of. It is then David first begins to question his father’s beliefs, as shown in the quotation, “A blasphemy was, as had been impressed upon me often enough, a frightful thing. Yet there was nothing frightening about Sophie. She was simply an ordinary little girl,” (Wyndham 14). This phrase is the spark that will ignite the fire of rebellion inside David, as he realizes that his father’s beliefs may not be morally correct and are often flawed. Naturally, David begins to feel a bit betrayed by his father for leading him astray and forcing wrong beliefs upon him, and th...
...rget it. This negative view of homosexuality is enforced by society, which David absorbs into himself.
He tries to explain that in order to be happy, one must put himself in other people's shoes, to know that there is another world that you must enter that revolves around another individual. A person must learn that he must look at both sides of the road before crossing the road of judgment. Meaning that a person must think twice before judging someone due to the fact that you are incapable off reading other people's minds thus you cannot make a judgment about how tough their lives are and the daily hardships that they have to put up with. Before you start complaining about how long the line at the store is, realise that you are not the only person waiting in line and that there are other people waiting in line too just like you are. David uses plenty of metaphors and examples in order to further explain to the audience his statement. One example he uses in the beginning of the story is the fish example, where two young fish meet an older fish who asks them "how is the water", the two young fish then go on to reply by saying "what the hell is water?". After reading through the story, one realises that what the author means by 'water' is that in this scene, water is the representation of life. Thus you can think of it as the older fish asking the
The characters that help David come to terms with who he is and prove that being himself is beneficial to himself are Uncle Axel, the Sealand Lady and Sophie. Uncle Axel helps David achieve self-awareness through genuineness and impartiality. When Uncle Axel was explaining how David and Rosalind may easily be closer to the “true image”, this displays his integrity: “Perhaps the Old People were the image: very well then, one of the things they say about them is that they could talk to one another over long distances. Now, we can’t do that - but you and Rosalind can. Just think about that Davie.
The title “As nature made him” makes the point of this story clear, Nature made David a male and by making him a girl they changed his nature and thought that he could be nurtured into a girl. This is where Nature Vs Nurture comes in, is your behavior more influenced by genetics or environmental
human, a soul who knew nothing but love. Ironically, David was programmed to provide unconditional love and also served the purpose of being the perfect replacement of a ‘human’ boy.
David growing up as a child lived in a house where there was no love shown or caring relationships. He grew up not knowing what good relationships looked like or felt like. David did not think too highly of his dad or aunt and always had
“In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem” (2 Samuel 11:1). Everyone knows the story of David and Bathsheba; David, God’s chosen king of Israel, stays home from battle and commits adultry with one of his commanders wives, then ends up “inadvertently” causing the mans death to save face. This story shows its readers a new, dark side of the great king. If the Bible was not a book of God, but instead written to magnify man, this tragic story would probably have been carefully edited of completely omitted. But it’s not, the Bible is God’s word and this tragity was kept for a reason. David, a man to be considered after Gods own heart (1 Sam. 13:14; Acts 13:22), and probably the greatest hero in Hebrew history, falls into temptation and a spiral of sin. There are many lessons that can be learned from this story, such as: the utter vileness of our hearts, the horrible consequenc...
Life for most homosexuals during the first half of the Twentieth century was one of hiding, being ever so careful to not give away their true feelings and predilections. Although the 1920s saw a brief moment of openness in American society, that was quickly destroyed with the progress of the Cold War, and by default, that of McCarthyism. The homosexuals of the 50s “felt the heavy weight of medical prejudice, police harassment and church condemnation … [and] were not able to challenge these authorities.” They were constantly battered, both physically and emotionally, by the society that surrounded them. The very mention or rumor of one’s homosexuality could lead to the loss of their family, their livelihood and, in some cases, their lives. Geanne Harwood, interviewed on an National Public Radio Broadcast commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, said that “being gay before Stonewall was a very difficult proposition … we felt that in order to survive we had to try to look and act as rugged and as manly as possibly to get by in a society that was really very much against us.” The age of communist threats, and of Joseph McCarthy’s insistence that homosexuals were treacherous, gave credence to the feeling of most society members that homosexuality was a perversion, and that one inflicted was one to not be trusted.
Halperin, David. "Is There a History of Sexuality?." The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. Ed. Henry
Bawer, Bruce. A Place at the Table: The Gay Individual in American Society. New York: Poseidon, 1993. Print.