Meet Guillaume

Guillaume is a character that enjoys the finer things in life and I noticed this once he started to complain about a restaurant being poisonous due to its surrounding. He is a character introduced in James Baldwin’s work of fiction, Giovanni’s Room, a story that takes place in France during the 1950's. It is about how a man deals with his sudden falling in love with another man. Meet Guillaume through his values, character traits, and his relationship with Giovanni.

Guillaume values his money and other people’s opinions about him. He values money because it gives him the opportunity to have a rich life and have other’s think highly of him. He is the owner of gay bar that the characters enjoy going to. He also values people’s opinions about him by dressing in expensive clothes, telling his grand stories, being sociable with is customers, and having Giovanni address him as his patron. Being rich is important to him because, I believe that he thinks that first impressions are all about how he is presented externally.

Baldwin illustrates Guillaume to be a character that is egotistical and boring. He expresses being proud by letting everyone in his bar know that this is his bar, he welcomes other characters with long stories, and when first meeting Giovanni at a movie theater, Guillaume emphasizes how expensive his lost scarf is. He is boring due to the other character’s reactions to him and his storytelling. The narrator, David, describes Jacques face to wander while Guillaume continues to talk to him. Giovanni also shares with the readers how after hearing the story of Guillaume’s lost scarf and being asked out to accompany him in dinner, he agreed to end the conversation. However, he did not plan to go due to Guillaume’s lack of personality.

The day has come that the two planned to have dinner, and by not eating all day Giovanni decided to meet up with Guillaume. From then on, the two developed a relationship in which Guillaume gave Giovanni a place to live, and a source of income, working at his bar. Being so good with the customers, bringing in business, Guillaume kept him and at the same time could not touch him which is what Giovanni wanted. Giovanni literally accepted Guillaume as his patron.

I think that Guillaume is proud of what he has made out of himself, the owner of a gay bar, and is not shy to let other people know. This works in his benefit because, by being the owner the customers have to be loyal to him and they show this by listening to his long stories. I think that it is safe to categorize Guillaume as a boring, rich, elderly homosexual that takes what you have to say about him into deep consideration.