Abstract:

Published in 1982, Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story is a bildungsroman of a young boy remembering his past and sexual initiation. While the novel traces the narrator’s experiences of growing into a young man, it also includes glimpses of gay men’s experiences in the U.S during the mid-20th century. This article attempts to analyze the character’s journey of sexual discovery as part of his identity construction and details how this development of sexuality differs from the same-sex sexualities in the bildungsroman tradition. During his coming of age and self-growth process, the character’s sexual discovery is affected by the presence of the father figure. Due to this figure, the protagonist becomes attracted to his first love, Kevin. In light of the theoretical framework on the bildungsroman, gay sexuality, masculinity, and the oedipal triangle, this article examines the way the main character’s discovery of his attraction to Kevin is shaped by his relationship to his father. And this leads to the discovery of both himself and his sexuality during the process of transitioning from boyhood to gay manhood, where his sexuality becomes a part of his identity.

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