King David's Relationships With Hella And Giovanni

Loverra Di Giustino

Professor Odhiambo

English 440

September 24, 2016

David's inability to accept his homosexuality causes a lot of uncertainty for him and forces him to struggle in his relationships with Hella and Giovanni. David is running from himself. He is most afraid that he isn’t a “man” because of his illicit desires.

After the death of his mother David grew up under a father who drank a lot and slept with many woman. He resented it and it created a distance between them. His inability to bond with his father and the lost of his mother at a young age contributed to his inability to open up to people. His father acted more like a friend to him and so he didn’t have the emotional bonding that he needed growing up. This relationship

or lack thereof helped shape a number of David’s neuroses. He is constantly trying to live up to what he thinks are his father expectation even though he is unclear of what they are. The more David's father tries to bond with his son the farther apart they grow because there are certain things that David either cannot or will not explain to him.
David being American is more sexualy restrained than Giovanni. Giovanni doesn’t have the same guilt and sexual hangup that David is forced to wrestle with. In France where there is more tolerance David chooses to act on his homosexuality but he is still not completely comfortable and it shows in his dealing with Giovanni. Giovanni is at his worst and pretty much has nothing to lose. He is barely scraping by he has no home to return to, no one to answer to, which allows him a greater freedom.
Giovanni’s love for David is a pure and natural affection, but David cannot accept it as such, because to do so would be to accept his own homosexuality, which he has long been fighting. He lies to Giovanni, telling him he’s never been with a boy before. David ends the relationship with Giovanni as cruelly as he did with Joey. He never says goodbye he left both men broken showing how selfish he has always been.
David is so desperate to repress his gay leaning that he becomes engaged to Hella in an effort to have the defined life of wife and children.
He looked upon Jacques and Guillaume with disgust as maybe a harbinger of what he will turn out to be when he is older. An old queen paying young men for sexual favors. All of David’s actions ultimately become ruled by his homosexual desire or his desire to escape his homosexuality.