We don't know what we want and yet we are responsible for what we are: this is the fact. - Jean-Paul Sartre Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay In the novel John's Room, author James Baldwin invites his readers to travel to post-World War II Paris. The San Francisco Chronicle describes this read as “violent, heartbreaking beauty,” highlighting the stark contrast between the Paris of 1950s American expatriates and the glittering setting of the first wave of the lost generation. By choosing this backdrop, Baldwin sets the stage for a highly controversial narrative of death, love, and the complexity of choice. Engulfed in the violence and bonds of an expatriate society, a young man, David, finds himself "trapped between desire and conventional morality." Playing on David's existential crisis, Baldwin's Giovanni's Room discovers how heavy the responsibility is to act for one's freedom. As defined by the Merriam Webster Dictionary (1828), existentialism is “a philosophical movement primarily of the 20th century which embraces several doctrines but is centered on the analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual which he must assume the ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of right or wrong, good or bad.” To understand how Baldwin captured the existential gravity of freedom, we must first analyze how existentialists believe freedom operates. In philosophical theory, freedom lies in the ability to choose our values, because our values ​​are isolated from the determination of any external force, including divinity. Evaluating what we value is how we make decisions. Therefore it is fundamental in existentialism to note that it is a personal responsibility to recognize our own values ​​and that our decisions are made autonomously. Decisions are then followed by our actions and further reactions. Therefore we are responsible for our actions and must learn to see how our actions have caused further reactions. This is where, as mentioned above, lies “the predicament of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will.” In the following paragraphs, using this framework of freedom as a guide, it will become clear how Baldwin uses David's complex situation to highlight "the predicament." At the heart of existentialism is that freedom lies in the power to decide what is valuable. This is why the Parisian expatriate society of the 1950s serves as an ingenious backdrop for John's Room, keeping in mind that "many existentialists identified the 19th and 20th centuries as experiencing a crisis of values." (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Np, nd Web. 09 May 2017) We can see that the 20th century was a society that went through traumatizing changes through “an increasingly secular society or the rise of scientific or philosophical movements that put questioning the traditional conceptions of value (for example Marxism or Darwinism), or the shocking experience of two world wars and the phenomenon of mass genocide”. (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Np, nd Web. 09 May 2017) These changes have forced humans to question the value of everything from life to tradition. What's brilliant about Baldwin's choice of this time period is that it's defined by a literal existential crisis. It is able to highlight the struggle for value and freedom, which we face every day, using a common topicand recognizable as love. David's story of sexual freedom as a young man whose wealth and power are tied to society's expectations, who resists the appropriation of his sexuality as a gay man by engaging with Hella and Giovanni, and who lives in the midst of post-war 1950s Paris World II as an American expatriate, makes the complexity and confusion of love leap out of the pages of Baldwin's book. This exaggerated scenario of liberation drives home the theme of existentialism in relation to freedom not existing without responsibility. To understand how Baldwin skillfully constructed David's “plight,” we must render the previously referenced structure of freedom as found in the Existential Movement. Now that we understand that freedom lies in our ability to measure value, we can determine that decisions are made by weighing the value of one option and the outcome of another. Thus, as noted above, “freedom is partly defined by the isolation of my decisions from any determination by a deity, or from previously existing values ​​or knowledge.” (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Np, nd Web. 09 May 2017) In John's Stanza these external forces are identified as God and American society. Throughout the novel David almost never uses religious language for guidance. At the end of Part One When his elderly Italian housekeeper asks him if he prays, David stammers: “No, no. Not often." (page 69). And when she asks him if he is a believer, he smiles strangely to which she replies, "You must pray," and a whole speech about how getting married to a good woman and having children will make him happy Only at the end of the book does David use religious language to describe himself and John. He imagines John kissing the cross in his final moments only for a priest to lift the cross up to him death,” and hurriedly, “toward revelation.” Baldwin's conclusion of both sections of the book, with mentions and reflections on God, shows us readers that, although David may not appear devout, he allows his actions to be guided by the number of worthy elders, others, and tradition placed upon him. faith The second external force that David allows to direct his life is American society. For David it is a constant struggle between the white picket fence, a wife and children, or living openly with Giovanni. David is reminded of what American society expects of him through letters from his father, asking him to come home, and Hella saying that "I will marry him. He is also affected by strong beliefs of homophobia, as being openly gay is far from accepted, and is certainly not the expectation for a young man of his social and economic status. The effects that David allows these expectations to have on his life, are clearly seen in his relationship with Giovanni in which he was dissatisfied,. hostile and distant. The truth of his actions is best seen in Giovanni's reaction during their biggest argument in which Giovanni accused David of wanting him to become "a little girl", in reference to the perfect American heterosexual life that David simply didn't want to let go of. In these cases David did not use his freedom to decide the value of God and society's expectations in his life, but instead he carelessly and fearfully tried to adopt the values ​​that others attributed to these external forces, bringing pain and suffering in his life and in the lives of others. Baldwin uses this character flaw as a perfect way to demonstrate that.