Differences Between Clare And Irene Life

During the 1950s, segregation was the main thing. Segregation is when the whites and the blacks were separated from doing things together like going to school together, watching movies and drinking out of the water fountain. However, the blacks were treated poorly by have no education, filthy water out of the water fountain, and they would be put into jail for no reasons. So Carolyn knew that her family would be not guilty and wouldn’t be put into jail. “ We are going to be find, he was black and we are white”. (pg 64). This is important because it shows that she knows they wouldn't go to jail and influenced that all whites will be fine but the blacks

It is that belief that makes Clare to participate in parties in Harlem. When Clare first visits to Irene's party she danced "more often with a Negro" (204). Since dancing is an activity which requires many skin ships and partnership with a partner, it would be easier to dance with people who they like or comfortable with. So if Clare tends to dance with black men it means her pleasure toward them. Clare is finding her happiness in this way. Why Clare came back to black community and desire to mingle with African American even she ran out of them twelve years ago? Is passing still worth for Clare? The tea party functions as a turning point for Clare. It is with this event that her value moves from wealth to happiness and a safe life which was Irene's "most important and desired thing in life" (235). Clare is not the only person who changed from the tea party but also Irene.

The main reason Clare is an outsider is because she is “passing” as a Caucasian. The act of “passing” is a very interesting concept that can be quite troubling. “What is troubling about the concept of racial “passing” is that it necessitates placing people of mixed ancestry in one racial category over another” (Nisetich 2013). This is exactly what Clare is doing with her life, she is saying she’s part of a race that she really isn’t. She has even taken it as far as fooling her husband, John Bellew. They became a couple because he is a wealthy, white business man. On the other hand, John is an extremely racist man. This is shown from his comments when he had lunch with: Clare, Irene, and Gertrude. On this day, is when Clare realized she’s going to be in a lot of trouble when John finds out the

In the south, African Americans could not go to the same school as the white children. That made them mad because they were made equal. In the the book, The Watsons go to Birmingham, their cousins marched to have rights and to show that there should be no segregation between African Americans and whites. In the book ,The Watsons go to Birmingham it says “ White children often attended large, well equipped , modern schools while African American students went to one-room schoolhouses without enough books or teachers.”(207 -208) They treated them unfair because the African Americans got the hand me downs of the white kids.This is an example for how segregation fits in the book and when it really happened.

Segregation had had many effects on the black nation, to the point that it started building up ones character, “See the depressing clouds of inferiority begin to form in her little mental sky and see her begin to distort her little personality by unconsciously developing a bitterness towards white people”, King shows readers that segregation is even affecting little children, that it is starting to build up a young girls character and is contributing to the child developing hatred “bitterness” towards the white Americans. King makes readers imagine a black cloud settling in a young girls brain mentally, when instead she should have an image of a colorful blue sky with a rainbow, isn’t that suppose to be part of a 6 year-old’s imagination? King gives readers an image of destruction civil disobedience had created in the black community, especially in the young innocent little children.

In Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Problem of Interpretation, Claudia Tate argues that race “is not the novels foremost concern, but is merely a mechanism for setting the story in motion” (344). Tate’s decision to focus on the “psychological ambiguity” (343) of the novel forbids her to elaborate on the relation between race and social class. As a result, I disagree with certain statements from Tate’s argument due to the lack of acknowledging the issue regarding race and social class. Tate initially claims that Irene’s understanding of race becomes a concern “when the impending exposure of Clare’s racial identity threatens to hasten the disruption of Irene’s domestic security” (Tate 344). However, Irene’s fear of being spotted as a

When Irene finally realizes that this woman is Clare, someone who chooses to “pass” and hide all traces of her black heritage, Irene’s opinion of her changes. She no longer wants to be involved with Clare in any way, and “had no desire or intention of making the slightest effort about Tuesday. Nor any other day for that matter. She was through with Clare Kendry.” (p. 31) Irene is appalled that someone can so easily throw away her background just for the sake of gaining privilege over another race. When Clare asks her if she had ever thought of passing, Irene replies, “No. Why should I? You see, Clare, I’ve everything I want.” (p. 28) She is happy with what she has, not even having to give up anything to get there. Or at least that’s what she convinces herself to believe. Irene is again hypocritical in her beliefs. Even when she opposes Clare’s view of passing, she is still very interested in the idea. “The truth was, she was curious. There were things she wanted to ask Clare Kendry. She wished to find out about this hazardous business of ‘passing’…” (p. 24) She even admitted that she held for her “a fascination, strange and compelling.” (p. 28) Irene doesn’t seem to be able to decide if she accepts passing as reasonable. She forces herself to disagree with passing, allowing her to hate Clare for doing it. This shows us that sexuality and race are two matters that conflict with each other, at least in Irene’s opinion. She uses race to

Starting her second education, she was forced to drop out to care for her ailing grandmother. With Jim Crow’s Law, heavily in affect, her childhood was greatly influenced by the segregation between white people and black people in almost every part of their lives.

So as growing up “colored” life was very difficult for these two women to grow up and lead a problem free life despite how hard they tried. Though they were very high status colored people and they had a lot of white people they were still judged as blacks so even though they moved to the north to get rid of some racism they could never actually get away from

We saw prejudice and discrimination throughout the book. For example, when Lafayette’s was charged with a crime due to hi, been associated with who did it. When LaJoe lost her benefits from the state due to her on and off husband using her home address and when collecting unemployment benefits which LaJoe did not claim as income coming into the home. In both instances, the Rivers were treated as if they were liars and criminals. Because of Lafayette being from the inner city, there was this predetermine thought about any youth that lived in the inner city from the court system. LaJoe was treated with disrespect by the welfare office because of the prejudgment they had formed about people that lived in the inner city. Due to the location in which they stayed, the importance of healthy living condition was not a priority to the city. They were forced to live in the vicinity of garbage, broken sewer systems, dead animals, etc. Also, the children were forced to either stay in their apartments or play on the railroad tracks because the city had only a few areas for them to play. These areas had become run down and it was unsafe for kids to play in. It is unsure why the was such neglect for those areas of the inner city, but one could only think that it had to do with how this race has been treated for years.

This stated prejudice can be noted in a scene where Clare, Irene, and Gertrude are discussing the skin tones of their children. Clare addresses them, “No, I have no boys and I don’t think I’ll ever have any. I’m afraid. I nearly died of terror the whole nine months before Margery was born for fear that she might be dark. Thank goodness, she turned out alright. But I’ll never risk it again. Never! The strain was simply too–too hellish” (Larsen, 25). The extent to which the social stigma of the 1920s had tainted the views of Clare, though she is light-skinned, who is a black woman. She dreads over the thought of having a dark skinned child as if that would be the most despicable thing that could happen to her. Clare describes her African-American genetics as “hellish” and further speaks to the effects of colorism on black women. At this point, Clare is not only passing but she is denying her race in its entirety, making it out to be something wrong. Passing no longer exists as a social construct for African American social mobility, but rather a means for inhibiting any upward mobility through self-deprivation in regards to their culture and race.

Although Irene feels that there is "nothing sacrificial in Clare's idea of life, no allegiance beyond her own immediate desire," it is apparent that Clare's desire to return to her African American race is honest, even if the motives seem rather one-sided (Larsen 144). Irene considers Clare to be "selfish, cold and hard" (Larsen 144). Irene also feels that Clare does not have "even in the slightest artistic or sociological interest in the race that some members of other races displayed…[She] cared nothing of the race, she only belonged to it" (Larsen 182). This may be true, but it does not diminish Clare's own pain at having to deny her African American heritage, and her desire to return to it. Irene represents a portion of society who feel that people who pass must have a morally acceptable reason to return to their African American roots such as a desire to rebel against a white society that has forced them into the role of a white person. Just because Clare feels "no permanent allegiance to either the black or white worlds or any of the classic anguish of the tragic mulatto" does not mean that she is not a tragic mulatto (Washington 48). In her own way, "Clare Kendry belongs with that group of tragic mulattos…emerg[ing] as an individual, not as a stereotype" (Davis 98). Because she wants to return to her own race on her own terms illustrates her individuality in the face of the

In today's societies, people avoid drastic change by staying along their morals and beliefs, and dissociating or segregating anyone inside them who does not fall into the standard. A similar philosophy on societies can be appreciated in the intriguing short story, “The Welcome Table for Sister Clara Ward”. This thought-provoking story is written by Alice Walker, an African American novelist and poet, who bases the plot on the immense segregation that once took place in the United States. In the story, Sister Clara Ward is segregated from her Christian church and her society as a result of a difference in skin color and class. Through Sister Clara Ward’s alienation from the Christian Church due to her race and social status in “The Welcome Table for Sister Clara Ward,” Alice Walker utilizes the citizen’s judgemental comments to display the society’s strongly believed but primitive assumptions of blacks as well as their indisputable superiority over lower classes.

The ideas and principles of the ‘traditional’ women stem off the idea of the patriarchy, a social system in which the authority figure and main provider of the household is a man while the woman is a homebound individual whose main concern is to the family. Both Miranda Priestly and the main protagonist Andrea Sachs simultaneously face different examples on how society views women as mothers more than working individuals. In respect to Miranda Priestly, she remains so consumed up with her work that she has gone through several divorces and suffers from one towards the end of the film. The main reason for the divorce was the fact that Priestly never took time off and never had enough time for her husband and children. The local newspapers always

Almost everything I learned about Irene was surprising to me. First of all I found it interesting that Irene was an orphan. Typically when I think of leaders I think of members of the upper class or at the very least middle class. Irene being an orphan is strange to me because it must have been nearly impossible for an orphan girl to rise to the rank of empress at this point in time. Something else that stood out to me about Irene was the fact that she had a strong interest in military affairs despite having no prior experience in that field. Not only was she interested but she was also successful in military campaigns at the beginning of her reign despite replacing many of her experienced commanders with inexperienced ones. What is most shocking