Fact or Fiction?

"Yes, I am. I am your Butterfly."- (M. Butterfly, page 40)

This confession from Song closes out the first act beautifully. It is a simple statement with monumental implications. From very early on in the act, it is evident that Song is facing an inner struggle, between acting and conforming like a Western woman- tough and nonchalant- and showing her true, scared, fragile self.

When Song is first introduced on page 17, she is portrayed to be bold, and states that "I will never do Butterfly again.."

Song, throughout the course of the act, slowly gives in a Gallimard. Her confession at the end shows the stark difference between when she was first introduced. Though she may not have wanted to say it, it is undeniable. By admitting that she is Butterfly, she is opening herself up to Gallimard, and no longer denying who she really is. Butterfly may be a fictional character in an opera, but for Song, it is not fiction; she is not acting as Butterfly, she is Butterfly.

Cry for help

“‘But I’m a man,’ I cried, ‘a man! What do you think can happen between us?’” Giovanni’s Room, page 142

This cry from David sums up everything that he believes and remained silent about. David does not believe that anything can “happen” between two men. Regardless of the fact that David has been living with Giovanni for months, sharing everything, he still refuses to believe that two men can have a life together. In fact, it is not that he refuses to believe it, so much as that he cannot fathom it as a possibility. 

In the pages surrounding this outcry and the fight between David and Giovanni, it is infinitesimally more evident that David can only see living a normal life as a man being with a woman. He makes himself believe that he truly loves Hella, and is turned off by the thought of Giovanni as anything of importance. He cringes away from the thought of Giovanni, and shuts down. He feels nothing because he is afraid to- afraid to acknowledge what is so blatantly obvious: that he loves Giovanni. 

Accidental Friendship

"Don't you know when you have made a friend?" (Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin, page 37)

This question from Giovanni essentially condenses all we have learned about David up to this point into one statement: David has trust issues. 

Up until this point in his life, David did not let a single person into his mind or his heart- no one except for Joey that is. Since the night he spent with Joey, David closed himself off to the world. Even when he was in the accident that could have very well killed him, he barely showed a glimmer of emotion. 

As he previously had described so eloquently, he was a master of deception. David only said to his father the things which he thought his dad would want to hear, which resulted in being the things he also wished to believe. David fooled himself, wanting to believe that he was not gay and trying to forget that night with Joey which shaped the person he became. Being so adept at the act of deceiving, he even made himself believe that he loved Hella, and she very possibly believed him too.

No one in David’s life really knew the person David really was. And with good reason too, because David never allowed them too- he did not even allow himself to know who he truly was. He did not trust anyone to know. However, without even giving it much thought, David allowed Giovanni to begin to know him. He let him in, without even realizing what he was doing. His only regret was that Jacques had witnessed everything.