Throughout Giovanni's Room, Baldwin makes a series of references to David's sense of manufactured manhood or masculinity impressed upon him by his father. In the first chapters, David alludes to the empty joke between father and son. This hyperbolized masculinity on the part of his father leads to the formation of David's fervent belief in archetypal manhood, inducing his unconscious and lifelong quest for ideal masculinity. This pursuit ultimately becomes one of the driving forces of his actions for the rest of the novel. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Although he is not named, David's father is the only archetypal "man" in the entire novel, and is therefore the only model for young David to form his own perceptions of what actually means to be a “man”. In David's childhood, David's father was distant, and whenever David interacted with him, any paternal instincts were veiled under a mask of brotherly camaraderie and not fatherhood: "We were not like a father and a son, my father sometimes said with pride, we were like friends. I think my father believed him sometimes. I didn't do it. I didn't want to be his boyfriend; I wanted to be his son” (16). As a result, David was forced to interpret and form his own understanding of masculinity, and with no real guiding examples available to him, his ideologies became infused with fictional stereotypes of manhood. In the later stages of the novel, David's latent search for true manhood is undeniable. His homosexual relationship with Giovanni threatens his preconceived notions of what it means to be a man, and as a direct result, he retreats to the safety of Hella's womb in a vain attempt to conform to his archetypal vision of perfect manhood and d 'a patriarchy. There was only one moment of true paternal feeling, a moment that David seems to regard as the only normal interaction he ever had with his father. After the car accident at the beginning of the novel, while David is in the hospital, his father, in a rare moment of what could be considered a weakness or a strength, finally alludes to his buried fatherly love for his wires with a simple touch. from David's forehead. “Don’t cry,” he said, “don’t cry. He stroked my forehead with this absurd handkerchief as if it possessed a healing charm” (18). In a metaphorical sense, the handkerchief did indeed bring a sense of relief to David, but his father's admission of paternity was too late. David's ideological views on masculinity had already become ingrained in his mind. This latent desire for archetypal manhood is most pronounced in David's internal struggle regarding his relationship with Giovanni. He longs for the feeling of intimacy he feels when he is with the young man; however, his conscience makes him hesitate. While a sense of social rectitude was undoubtedly a factor in David's hesitation, Baldwin alludes to David's terror at the thought of his carefully constructed sense of masculinity being shattered as the real reason for his flight possible from Giovanni. David alludes to the realization of his fears when talking about his relationship with the Italian: "I invented in myself a kind of pleasure in playing the role of housewife after Giovanni left for work….. But I don't I'm not a housewife - men can never be. housewives” (88). David's previously unsuspected discomfort with his role in their relationship manifested itself instantly; he began to think of himself as a wife, and it was this notion that eventually.?