How Jack Bellew's Speech Affects the Plot of Nella Larsen's Passing

Clare Kendry in Larsen’s Passing, is a very complex character. She is an African American woman, who is “passing” as a white Caucasian. It all started when her Dad died when she was little, and was taken to her white aunts. Her aunts treated her like she was the help, so this made her want to be wealthy when she is older. Irene is her childhood friend, who saw Clare go through her tough times. They grew apart for a while, but met up in Chicago a couple of years ago. Clare has made herself an outsider through her actions. She is an outsider because she tries to pass as a Caucasian, uses her friends for her own benefit, and secretly wants to get back to her cultural roots.

the novel Passing, Nella Larsen explores the consequences and disadvantages of two African Americans living in a segregated society. The reconnection between Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry illustrates two different paths in regards to how they portray themselves in their own community. Larsen displays Clare Kendry as a light – skinned women who tolerates her husband’s racial comments in order to live in a higher society. Clare’s decision to secretly hide her racial background because of the desire of wanting to be accepted by individuals of an upper social class greatly affects Irene. Clare’s determination of overcoming racial barriers by passing as a white individual is similar to the Rhinelander/Jones case. In 1924 the son of the wealthiest families in New York married the daughter of a taxicab driver. However, Leonard Rhinelander appealed to have is marriage annulled due to “believing his wife to be white when he married her” (135). Rhinelander suspected Alice Jones was hiding her racial background by passing as a white individual. As the trial progressed it was concluded that that Rhinelander had an understanding of her racial background before marriage was an option between the two. The Rhinelander/Jones case demonstrates how Clare Kendry decided to pass as a white individual in order to obtain wealth and social status by marrying a white male. The three criticism texts chosen demonstrates how racial passing between Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry contributes to social status.

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

The main plot of “Passing” focuses on two light-skinned black women, Irene Redfield and her old time friend Clare Kendry. Both women can “pass” as white women. Irene who is married to a successful African-American doctor, passes only when it is

When all the men went into town, she started to spending time with characters whom she believes that are “weak”: “They left all the weak ones here”; They are Lennie, Candy and Crooks. by hanging out with them , she feels that she has power over them. When Crooks ordered her to get out of his room, she had threatened him and reminded him that he’s a negro and she is the wife of the boss’s son. The author wants us to know the position of white women in the society in that time generally.

Passing tells a story about Clare Kendry, a light skinned mulato woman who lived with her white aunts and passed as white. Clare then married a to a rich white man named Jack Bellew and never told him about her African ancestry. This story is told from Irene Redfield’s first point of view. Irene Redfield was a long friend of Clare who also was a light skinned mulatto. In contrast of Clare, Irene lived as a proud African American woman who married to a successful black man named Brian and lived on Harlem.

Passing is the story about the life surrounds two main character, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield but it portrays them as powerless creatures that struggle in identify themselves in their own society. It also portrays the picture of men as power creatures against women, as if they are the “gender slave” owners where the women are the “gender slaves.” John Bellew is the perfect figure that is portrayed in this story, symbolizing the power of the men in society. Clare Kendry, fearing that John might figure out her original root, shrinks herself into a small creature, powerless, helpless against him. This situation symbolizes the ideology in the family’s structure of power in the society, where men are always in charge of the house, and women have to follow what they said. When he came into the room during the party, his greeting to Clare was, “Hello, Nig” (Larsen P1 3). Despite the fact that he didn’t know about Clare and her friends’ background, the greeting still heated up their anger. Even though it was very offensive, Clare and her friends still could not do anything about it. This shows the power of John over all the women, as the only man in the room. His power controls Clare in everything, where she had to be careful what she did that include her racial root. Nella Larsen has portrayed the power that men have and abuse it in their own household or even in

In its most basic state, lips are a visible body part used in articulating sound and speech. But, the utilization of lips to formulate words for communication overshadows the message the physical feature conveys itself. In the Passing, Larsen utilizes lips to provide insight on how emotionally repressed Clare and Irene are. Rather than blatantly explaining how the characters are restrained, the author hints at it through the use of their lips. In the beginning of the novel, the narrator introduces Clare Kendry as a struggling adolescent being told of the death of her father. Initially, the narrator describes her with “her lips pressed together” (Larsen 173). Through her compressed lips, the readers gain visual insight on Clare subduing her overwhelming range of emotions. By closing her lips tightly, Clare reveals her frustration in smothering her grief and disbelief in learning of her father’s death. Similarly, Irene also displays her frustration and anger through her pressed lips while listening to the racist comments of Jack Bellew (Larsen 201-202). Rather than having an impassioned outburst, both Clare and Irene repress their emotions to maintain the graceful and feminine status. Subsequently, bound lips parallel the repression of women due to the societal standards they have to

Through Tea Cake’s character, Zora Neale Hurston shows that society is destructive. Whenever there is a group of people living together, “society” is inescapable. Tea Cake pretends to be a man who is not consumed with the evilness of society, however, Tea Cake’s influence on Janie forces her to become weak and dependent. Uncovering society’s faults force Janie to become aware of her situation, and become a realistic person, rather than the romantic she has always

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.

It explains her lifestyle choices to her parents. They did what society did not expect of them. Young women had plenty of opportunities for fun. Although Prohibition drove alcohol underground that only added to its allure. Postwar gave more free time which allowed time for drinking, dancing and hanging out with free thinkers. Prohibition was a time period in American history that was thought to be wasteful. It was an experiment, an experiment in ridding American of Alcoholic beverages. After 13 years, Prohibition was over, and the results that reformers hoped to see were not visible. They would go out and party and do as they please. The economy crashed and the Great Depression reduced the night life. They may have gone back to marriage and long hours of toil for little pay but hemlines stayed above the ankle and the corset never went back to everyday status.

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 Passing, Clare and Irene two light-skinned African American woman, try to pass for white in a segregated society. Irene infrequently passes while Clare who is biracial, lives a boastful life by identifying herself as a white woman (so it seems). Irene on the other hand strives to

After an alleged sight of a possible witch gathering in the town of Salem, Massachusetts, a witch hunt soon began, keeping all citizens on edge. Reverend Parris’s daughter, Betty, falls ill, after being caught dancing in the woods with his maid Tituba and Abigail Williams the night before; the strange case that lies with the ill Betty and Ruth Putnam doesn’t help ease the other citizen’s nerves. It is then revealed that the witch gathering was the doing of Abigail Williams. When questioned about the events of that what really happened that night, Abigail is quick to blame Tituba, Parris’s slave from Barbados. Abigail even goes to cite her past actions, such as laughing during prayers, as Tituba’s doing. In order to plead away with her own innocence,

According to the Introduction of Passing Penguin Edition the term passing can be defined as “the movement of a person who is legally or socially designated black into a white racial category or white social identity” (viii). In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, readers can see passing not only as a racial activity but also as one related to sexuality. The main character Irene Redfield is passing as straight woman that ends up killing Clare Kendry, the woman she seems to be in love with. On the surface, Irene’s motivation to kill Clare is the possible affair between Clare and Bryan but in fact it is more than that. Irene’s unconscious knows that the only way to keep her lesbianism repressed is by maintaining a