The importance of place in James Baldwin's novel, Giovanni's Room can be interpreted in many different ways. For most of the novel, David is in Paris France. While some consider Paris the "City of Love" David is unable to experience love, and this may have been a reason that David chose Paris as the city he would 'find himself' or possibly find love in. (Also, the writer inserted bits of French -which most Americans associate as the "language of love"- into the story line it leads even the readers who don't understand a bit of French, to think that whatever they are saying must at the very least sound beautiful.)
             David originally traveled to Paris to run away from the memory of his first homosexual relationship with a childhood friend, Joey. "There is something fantastic in the spectacle I now present to myself of having run so far, so hard, across the ocean even, only to find myself brought up short once more before the bulldog in my own backyard-the yard, in the meantime, having grown smaller and the bulldog bigger." (6) David wanted to believe that he was a man of some significance, while without the ability to escape his true identity and become the man he believed he wanted to be, his fight was hopeless.
             Also, Hella's location in Spain is worthy of some attention. During this time period it would have been rather unheard of for a single woman to be traveling alone in a foreign country; this brings to question the motives of Hella to travel in Spain. What I interpreted this voyage to be is just a way of Hella to take some time off from David and figure out if she really wanted to marry him. The question of "Why Spain?" still lingers in my mind. It could possibly be that she had always wanted to visit the country, or maybe she just wanted to experience a culture different than her own. Regardless of the reason Hella went to Spain, it is still an important ...