Comparing Giovannis Room And The Awakening And Giovanni's Room

James Baldwin’s, Giovanni’s room and Kate Chopin’s, The Awakening are two completely different stories but are actually more similar than one might think. Giovanni’s Room is a story about a gay man named David who struggles with his sexual identity. This contrasts Chopin’s story about Edna, a woman who experiences an awakening about her oppressed life. Although Giovanni’s Room and The Awakening have much different plots, they share similar themes such as societal pressures, identity, and entrapment. Both David and Edna are pressured by society to live a certain way. David struggles to maintain a masculine image around other people. This starts in his childhood, where he grew up without a mother. David was raised by his father and his aunt

David struggles with his sexual identity throughout Giovanni’s Room. He shows readers that he is gay at the beginning of the novel when he recalls his experience with Joey. He says, “my own body suddenly seemed gross and crushing and the desire which was rising in me seemed monstrous. But above all, I was afraid” (Baldwin 9). He wants to fall in love with a woman, but his attraction to other men causes him to fear his true identity. Later on in his life, David asks his girlfriend to marry him, hoping that his desire for men would disappear after the marriage. David finally accepts his identity after Giovanni is executed. Edna strove for a different kind of identity. She wanted to be seen as an individual, not a man’s wife. Unlike David, she does not attempt to hide her identity. Edna separates herself from her family and mostly her husband so that she can act more independently. Edna is somewhat successful in gaining independence as she abandoned her reception day, moved to a different house, and goes where she pleases. At the height of her independence she tells Robert, “I am no longer one of Mr. Pontellier's possessions to dispose of or not. I give myself where I choose” (Chopin 108). After she says this, she realizes that she will not be able to change her identity the way she wanted to. Edna ultimately fails in creating the identity that she wants for herself because her society prevented