Ass-Backwards <Tab/>What makes someone gay? This question seems nearly impossible for Edmund White to answer in his novel, The Beautiful Room is Empty. What does his autobiographical character, Bunny Larkin, mean when he identifies himself as queer? One might find countless answers to this question in White's story, as homosexuality is thoroughly explored, yet never explained. The most obvious and perhaps the most dangerous definition of homosexuality lies in with …showed first 75 words of 1652 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1652 total…a pure theory of beauty." (128) Replacing cultures understandings of beauty with Lou's is typical of Bunny, though; he is at the whims of others while at the same time trying to forge an independent identity. It is an impossibility. While Bunny finally does accept and admit that he is in fact gay, the path he travels to do so would imply that he never fully understands what it is that he is identifying himself as.