Love and Place in Relation to African American Literature
African American literature is written by a writer of African descent in the United States of America. This definition does not lend itself to an interpretation that it has to be about the black struggles or history. African American literature could be as creative and impersonal as the author chooses it to be. It could cover topics such as place or love without sticking to the redundant idea of what African American Literature is. Through a more concise definition of African American literature as a work written by a black author, the book Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin and City of Harlem by Leroy Jones, with their thematic aspects, love and place, serves as a representation of what African American Literature could be about.
In Giovanni’s Room, the main character, David, does not experience the black struggle as it is known to be about (I.e. racism). Rather it is a novel that deals with complicated love relationships. The relationship between the main character, David, and his fiancé Hella could possibly be anyone’s experience. As David thinks of his fiancé Hella he states, “I told her that I had loved her once and…take any but the most mechanical responsibility for them.” (5) Giovanni expresses his love for Hella in a realistic way. He suggests that he loved her but implies that he does not love her anymore. David seems to be dealing with a confused feeling that most people have felt in their own relationships. Giovanni’s Room, even within its relationship, does not have anything to do with the black struggle. Rather, it exemplifies a feeling or situation that any human may experience. This human experience is portrayed in the book as a universal feeling that a lover can or could feel in one’s own. David, Giovanni’s Room protagonist, shares an even more personal and in-depth idea of love through his relationship to his lover, Giovanni.
The relationship between David and Giovanni is inferred to be a resemblance of a complicated homosexual relationship. Their struggle is not of the black struggle, but of a general situation that any homosexual, regardless of race, could experience. As David thought of his male lover, Giovanni, he suggests a theme of everyday life; “He wanted no distance between us; he wanted me…, which would have permitted me to love him.” Here David shares his emotional trauma. He shares a dilemma of a love that is not reciprocated. David expresses a general idea of the realistic idea of love relationships as it usually complicated and emotional. Giovanni’s Room is a very realistic story, in which relationships are bridged and built. It references a life story that is relatable to many. David does not hide his feelings for Giovanni or Hella, but he expresses truthfully how much he loved Hella and loves Giovanni. Love is a theme of the novel and this, one could say, is an experience all human have or have had.
As supported by some of the quotes in Giovanni’s Room, the everyday relationship aspect is evident. The relationships in the novel do not lend itself to a black struggle but to a common or possible experience that anyone could experience. The relationships in Giovanni’s Room as Baldwin expressed negates the idea that African American literature is not only of the black struggle. Since African American literature is not only about one theme or event, a theme of place could also be represented in a novel by a black author.
The theme of place lends itself as another theme in which the stereotypical assumption of African American literature being about the black struggle is illegitimate. City of Harlem is a notable article on the history of the city of Harlem and its various uniform movements. It uses the theme of place in a way that does not support the common view of African American literature. Jones does not explain any ideas of the black struggle in City of Harlem; he only talks about a particular place which is occupied by minorities.
Jones, while attempting to be as subjective as possible, seems to describe Harlem as a place that is uniquely black but that does not encompass struggles or hardships. Jones writes that, “In a very real sense, Harlem is the capital of Black America. And America has always been divided into black and white, and the substance of the division is social, economic, and cultural. But even the name Harlem, now, means simply Negros (even though some other peoples live there too)” (87). Jones describes that Harlem is a majority black city; but nonetheless he does not stretch out the theme of his work to being about the black struggle. Rather he just describes Harlem as being a place where blacks live.
Jones negates the assumption about the city of Harlem. He writes that, “…in another breath this same place will be gathering for every crippling human vice and the …men simply [are] victims of their own peculiar kind of sloth and childishness.” (88) Here, Jones is not just describing the black man’s experience; he is describing the men who live in Harlem and their overall attitudes. He is explaining a phenomenon of the city, which does not only describe the black man but poor people who live in Harlem. Even though Harlem is a black city, it is not necessarily a part of the African American struggle. Therefore the theme of place in City of Harlem reinforces an idea that even African American literature do not always have to be about the black struggle or even a black experience. Harlem, he describes, as just a place with a several monetary difficulties; and this is common.
In City of Harlem by LeRoi Jones and Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin, the themes place and relationship serves as an opposition of the overstated idea of African American literature. The stereotype is that it always consists of the black experience or the black struggle. Specifically defined, African American literature deals with a piece of work or works (literature) written by a black or African American author. As sufficed by several types of works by black authors, like Giovanni’s Room and City of Harlem, it is not a work about the black experience but one written by a black author; who may write about any idea including place or relationship (that might or might not deal with a thematic experience outside of the black experience or struggle).