Wolfram-Jaymes Keesing
asked:
I'd assumed that the boys were POC, but I keep finding articles on 'Baldwin's ability to write white protagonists in "Giovanni's Room."' My question is: did I miss the part where Baldwin says they're white, or is it fine to continue assuming they're POC?
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Erika
I'm not sure if it is made that explicit in the book, but Baldwin said in his interviews that the characters were white. This isn't because it would be "unrealistic" in that time for them not to be white, POC have been around for longer than we often like to acknowledge, but because Baldwin didn't want to tackle both the subject of homosexuality and race in the same book, as he found that it would make the book much more complex. The intersectionality of race and sexuality is something that transcends both categories and thus would be posing other questions than the ones in this book. He does attempt it in 'Go tell in on the Mountain', a more autobiographical book, and I recommend it warmly.
Marc
In 1956, would a POC plan to marry a girl from Minnesota named Hella? I began reading the book assuming David was POC, however didn't we learn he had blond hair? But was Joey POC? There was a reference to his skin tone, wasn't there?
Scott Amundsen
Considering the fact that this novel was published in 1956, to read the characters as persons of color would be to put an unrealistic slant on the entire narrative.
Giovanni, being from Italy, is obviously White, and if memory serves, both David and Hella have blond hair.
Giovanni, being from Italy, is obviously White, and if memory serves, both David and Hella have blond hair.
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