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Haneul Jang
Jennifer Rodrick
QS 115
21 November 2016
True Identity
In the novel A Single Man by Christopher Isherwood demonstrates George, the main
character as a middle-aged professor living in Los Angeles who is alienated from his students by
differences in age and nationality and from the rest of society by his homosexuality. Through
Georges life events, Isherwood writes about the possibility of a human being to overcome ones
loneliness, alienation and loss. George shapes his identity through acting upon his despair. He
goes through events which makes him suffer but in the end shapes his identity.
In the beginning of the novel, George wasnt himself. He was a nobody. Isherwood
describes George as it. Isherwood also does not name George with a last name and this also
foreshadows the lack of identity George has. Georges identity wasnt visible in the beginning of
the novel and it gets shaped throughout the novel. Even in the first couple pages of the novel,
George, being himself is referred to it and by the time it has gotten dressed, it has become he;
has become already more or less George..(location 32). Throughout the first part of the novel,
we can see how identi-less George is and how robot-like life George lives. He lives a same life
everyday with no special emotions attached to his actions. Couple pages later, you can see
Georges identity, described by Mr. Strunk, as queer. Mr. Strunk is a neighbor of Georges who
is very judgemental. Mr. Strunk tries to nail him down with a word. Queer, he doubtless
growls.. [Mr. Strunk] does not give a damn what [George] does just as long as he stays away

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from [him] (186). You can see how Georges identity, as being a homosexual, is portrayed in
the 1960s. With the alienation George gets from his surroundings, we visualize the hardships
George had in order to shape his true identity since he had to hide himself as being a
homosexual.
Since George knows himself as someone more than just a roommate of Jims, he
couldnt show his true emotions to Jms uncle, who let him know about Jims death. After
hearing about Jims death at first, George didn't know what he was feeling but he knew it was
wrong to start hating on everyone, nonetheless he still hated three quarters of the population of
america (320). George was just angry. He felt rage, resentment, spleen- of such, the vitality of
middle age (320) but since George was in the stage of denying the effect of Jims death towards
him, which is part of his identity, he felt that he had no time to worry about Jims death. Because
[he knew], in ten minutes, [he] has to be [George], the George they have named and will
recognize [in school] (327). George knew the world still went on even with devastating events
that occurred to him. With latter events occurring in his life, George begins to acknowledge the
influence of Jims existence he had in his life. George begins to slowly realize himself.
Later the novel talks about Jims death once more. Jims uncle calls George in order to
invite him to the funeral and George politely refuses the Uncles proposition. George couldnt go
because he knew they were more than just roommates and by admitting to himself his
relationship with Jim, George slowly begins to shape his identity as a truthful lover. After the
call and after denying the invitation to the funeral, George couldnt take the sorrow and banged
at Charleys door, crying blubbering howling on her shoulder (1304). This emotional outrage
George puts out shows his true love towards Jim, another identity of his as a truthful lover. From

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that night with Charley, he learns that [he] cant betray a Jim, or a life with a Jim, even if [he]
tries to(1315). George finally recognizes and admits how important Jim was and how important
his life with Jim was as well as and how much influence Jim had in shaping his identity.
After meeting up with Kenny and grabbing some drinks with him, they both randomly
decides to go to the beach and swim. By going into water, George feels baptised. He staggers
out once more, wide open armed, to receive the stunning baptism of the surf. Giving himself to it
utterly, he washes way thought, speech, mod, desire, whole selves, entire lifetimes; again and
again he returns, becoming always cleaner, freer, less. He is perfectly happy by himself
(location 1748). Through this experience of baptism, George experiences himself finding his
own identity. He throws away his sorrows and truly admits the entire life he went through which
shapes his true identity. Although the waves which hit him was harsh and cold, George did what
he had to do to live. He needed to cleansed from being a robotic, meaningless life living creature
he was. Every wave he was thrown out of made him fall since they were truly tremendous but he
was way too drunk to be afraid of the waves. The thought of overcoming the big, tremendous
and unwinnable wave made him overcome his pain and misfortune and led him to grow as a
person. This event had truly made him happy about himself.
A visual multimodal source I chose to
prove my claim of the importance of
events in finding identity was a Ted
show titled This is what LGBT life is
like around the world. This lesbian
couple went around the world to find

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LGBT activists and created a documentary about it. Reason for choosing this video was because
this video illustrates the relationship between difficult events, such as losing his love one and
overcoming the big tremendous wave, and finding ones true identity. Similar to George, these
people in the video also went through many difficulties to find and set their sexual identities.
Attitudes such as disgust and hate towards the minority, in this case to homosexuals, are
presented in the novel A Single Man. Such attitudes become evident to Isherwoods protagonist,
[George,] a gay college professor, when he realizes that the straight members of his community
dont give a shit about him, the loss of his partner, or the modernist literature he attempts to
teach (2 Scott). Since A Single Man was written as a self reflection of the author, it is definite
that the antagonist, George, overcomes his sorrow, despair and worries to find his identity and to
have a real life. This isnt a matter of how George shapes his identity but as in why he has to
shape his identity. George represents Isherwood himself thus George must overcome the
hardships he faces.
The novel seems to represent something more than just a simple individual. The novel
might portray George as a single gay man in a conservative society but the it actually seems to
portray George as the queer society itself. George's identity gets shaped throughout the book
through serious of lifelong events. One of the writer in an article I read views these events as to
something bigger than an identity of just a single man. The novel's depiction of homosexuality
as a legitimate minoritarian identity, rather than individual pathology, was a radical political
gesture. (Gonzalez). Corresponding to the former paragraph, since George represents more than
an individual man in the book, he has to portray the positive possibility the queer community
has. Also, Octavio R. Gonzalez believes A Single Man champions an ordinary gay man as

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synecdoche for a burgeoning homosexual community, a political minority consciousness. Yet, A

Single Man endorses an ascetic ethos of queer impersonality, which pervades the majority of the
novels scenes of sociability and attachment. That impersonal asceticism severely qualifies the
notion that A Single Man celebrates identity politics as the primary strategic weapon of
literary-cultural gay activism.
Since A Single Man reflects both Isherwood himself and the queer community itself,
Georges discovery of his true identity through series of events in life demonstrates the possible
positive outcome on ones life as well as a communitys life.

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Work cited
Bram, Christopher. "A Single Man Enters the Canon." Out, 18.5 (2009): 48.
Gonzalez, Octavio R. "Isherwood's Impersonality: Ascetic Self-divestiture and Queer
Relationality in 'A Single Man.'." Modern Fiction Studies, 59.4 (2013): 758-783.
Isherwood, Christopher. A Single Man. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota, 2001. Print.
Scott, Todd Ian. "Christopher Isherwood's Bathroom." Jml: Journal of Modern
Literature,
38.4 (2015): 110-125.
TEDtalksDirector. "This Is What LGBT Life Is Like Around the World | Jenni Chang
and Lisa
Dazols | TED Talks." YouTube. YouTube, 04 Dec. 2015. Web. 19 Nov. 2016.
<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivfJJh9y1UI>.