Every coming out story must address the characters' struggles with being hidden. The stage where you are not yet able to be open about your identity can be the most difficult and turbulent point in dealing with your queer identity. It's a time of difficult self-reflection and dissonance from the rest of the world, which can be incredibly isolating and unsettling. Each person's experience in discovering their identity is unique, and so are the closets in which they find themselves. The nature of the closet depends on the time period, society and the individual person's attitude. Furthermore, an individual's experience in the closet inevitably shapes how they view their sexuality, act towards their partner, and approach the outside world. After careful analysis of three upcoming stories: James Baldwin's novel Giovanni's Room, Annie Proulx's short story "Brokeback Mountain," and Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir Fun Home, I believe the most central setting of each serves as a metaphor for the wardrobe. I will discuss how Giovanni's room in Giovanni's Room, the mountain in “Brokeback Mountain,” and Alison's childhood home in Fun Home, all symbolize the closet in the way the settings act as very personal worlds estranged from reality to the characters, work to hide the secret of the characters' sexuality and reflects the characters' attitudes towards their identities. I will also work through some of the many similarities and differences between the experiences of the characters in these works. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As Baldwin describes the crucial setting for his characters, “Life in that room seemed to take place beneath the sea. Time passed indifferently above us; hours and days had no meaning” (75). For David and Giovanni, Giovanni's room is a place detached from reality, where the rules of the world they have known do not apply. Both men are in a sort of limbo in Paris, Giovanni has fled his family in Italy after the stillbirth of his son and David is waiting for his fiancée? Hello to come back. The room, their home in Paris, is the place where they are safe to express their sexuality, but also the place where their secret must remain if they want to adapt to the traditional world. Not only are they free to act on their desires within the walls of the room, but they also begin to reflect the gender roles of a heterosexual couple with David staying home and cleaning while John works and attempts home improvement projects such as build a bookcase in the living room. room. This is in stark contrast to how they cling to classical ideas of masculinity in their daily lives, and only makes them more estranged and distant from the outside world of 1950s Paris. Both David and John are private, yet their experiences and attitudes towards their children's sexuality and relationships diverge considerably. Just as the room reflects the closet, their attitude toward the room reflects their attitude toward the situation. Giovanni makes an effort to renovate the room and turn it into a beautiful home where he and David can be happy together instead of remembering the difficulties of their lives. David observes, “I had to destroy this room and give John a new and better life” (88). Giovanni feels no self-hatred due to his attraction to men and wants to find a way to make the most of his relationship with David even if they have to stay "in the closet". However, David has a very different perspective. "It doesn't matter whatI was doing, another me sat in my belly, absolutely cold with terror at the matter of my life" (83). He sees the dirty room and begins to hate being there as shame and hatred for his identity grows. There he feels uncomfortable to the point that he often dissociates and completely denies what is happening. David would rather live his life in denial than ever call that room home, because it is such a strong symbol of an identity he resists and of. man who wants to lead him to embrace her. “You want to leave Giovanni because he makes you stink. You want to despise Giovanni because he is not afraid of the stench of love (141). it's certainly the most literal image of a closet, with the two men locked together in the little maids' quarters. It's a huge contrast between the vast natural mountain world of Brokeback Mountain and the whimsical, labyrinthine house of Fun Home. However, Giovanni's Room is similar to Brokeback Mountain in that the characters' closet is a new place away from home where they find themselves freer and able to have a secret relationship. Neither David and Giovanni nor Jack and Ennis are able to come out into the societies in which they live and require a place secluded from the world for their relationship to begin. In Brokeback Mountain, Jack and Ennis' closet metaphor is the mountain. where they meet and begin their relationship while working together on a ranch one summer. Although their relationship continued sporadically for many years until Jack's death, the couple remained forever fixated on the power of their Brokeback Mountain experience. The mountain continues to be so important to them that Jack even wants his ashes scattered there, "Said he wanted to be cremated, ashes scattered on Brokeback Mountain" (25). It's so important because for Jack and Ennis the mountain is a fantasy world that belongs only to them. “There were the two of them alone on the mountain, flying in the euphoric, bitter air, looking down on the back of the hawk and the creeping lights of the vehicles on the plain below, suspended above ordinary affairs” (7). It becomes a bubble of security and secrecy in a society that would never tolerate them. Jack and Ennis' approach to their sexuality is reflected in Brokeback Mountain, in the way their desires, much like their surroundings, are treated as natural and uncontrollable rather than rational. They are depicted as part of the mountain environment around them rather than part of distant human civilization. Jack and Ennis are simple and animalistic in their actions, and this is perhaps best exemplified by their almost complete lack of communication regarding their relationship. “They never talked about sex, let's let it happen” (7). Like nature, Jack and Ennis' relationship is something bigger than themselves, something they can't fight against. “'There's no brakes on this. It scares the shit out of me.'” (14). The main difference between Brokeback Mountain and the closet metaphors found in the other two stories is that the setting is a part of nature rather than created by humans. The characters in Giovanni's Room and Fun Home are depicted as having more choice regarding their path and more control over their environments and closets. It's also different in that both Jack and Ennis fondly remember their summer on Brokeback Mountain as a carefree time in their youth, while Alison's house and Giovanni's room are both dark places where shame festers and leaves the characters in a desperate attempt to escape. it is Alison's childhood home that serves as a prison for her father's sexuality and her own. The house is his father's masterpiece, which he spent years restoring and decorating.