Passing Essay

This essay would argue about how this poem quoted at the very beginning of this novel implies the how the author express her sympathy and feeling towards their race and how she reveals the female’s inequality in the marriage. At the very beginning of book Passing, Nella Larsen quotes a poem from Countee Cullen to start her story. The poem is very short, which has only four lines. However, this short poem reveals the motif of this novel and the purpose of this writing—what is Africa to me? This question is not only an inquiry which asks African American about their current living conditions in America and their thoughts towards their ethnical identity, but it also is a reflection of the contemporary society in fields of racial discrimination, gender inequality, interracial marriage and basic human rights.

The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point for many African Americans. A vast amount of literature was created specifically for this group during this era. It was a period when the African American "was in vogue" and "white thinkers and writers were devoting a considerable amount of attention" to them (Taylor 91, 90). For the first time, African Americans were being told that it was okay to be proud of who they were. This new consciousness and self-awareness was prominent in many works of literate, but several writers began exploring the darker side of this movement with literature that concentrated on the negative aspects of race relations in America. Nella Larsen's novel Passing concentrates on this

After the chaos of the Spanish flu pandemic that struck the city in 1918 and 1919, she decided to become a librarian and was employed at the 135th Street branch of the New York Public Library. At the first look, "Passing," the title of the short book may project many meanings to the reader. Passing could refer to the change from "life" to "death." Although the word "passing" could simply be referring to a change , the word also suggests disguising oneself, or to take on a different identity. To pass, certainly refers to a to cross an edge/border. While no significant suggestions of race or sexuality are given in the title, it anyway suggests disguise, deceit and change . This changing period is quite possibly the process that Nella Larsen is referring to in the title of her short book Passing. According to Webster, change is defined as "A passing or passage from one condition, action or place to another, and ...the passage from an earlier to a later stage of development

On the more realistic side of things we have the author of Passing, Nella Larsen. She desired to write a novel that would teach whites about the society created on the grounds of racism and its

Throughout the Harlem Renaissance Nella Larson wrote intermittent narratives that emulated portions of her life. Narratives such as Passing emulate her desire for access to wealth, to middle-class comfort, and white privileges; are few examples. Larsen herself scuffles with identity after her Negro father (from the Virgin Islands) dies (at her age of two), and her Danish mother marries a man of her own race and nationality. At age of five, Larsen attends a small private school whose pupils were mostly German and Scandinavian. Labeling herself as a mulatto¬¬, a daughter of an interracial family; she does not identify specific connection with West Indian relatives. Passing protagonists, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, struggle with racial and sexual identities; Clare Kendry, breaks the mulatto stereotype by not being able to identify herself with a particular race because of her tragic death, while Irene Redfield obsession with Clare and her values for middle class standing leads to psychological suicide. Larsen utilizes the main protagonist; Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, to discuss race “passing”, sexual “passing”, and identification to present the reader their core values.

Racial identity is an important concept that everyone must deal with in their life. It is an individual’s sense of having their identity be defined by belonging to a race and or ethnic group. How strong the identity is depending on how much the individual has processed and internalized the sociological, political, and other factors within the group. In some instances, people do not identify with their race and they will “pass” as another. Nella Larsen, an African American writer and prominent member of the Harlem Renaissance movement, she explores the consequences of “passing”. Larsen’s Passing is a novel that challenges the concept of ethnicity, race and gender while revolutionizing the idea of what we describe as identity. The novel explores the issue of race through vivid plotting that depicts a mentally touching story of affecting boundaries in the early American society. The novel also explores the effects of racial construction on a person through multiple levels. Through Larsen’s characterization and setting she is able to bring out the social construction of race in an enjoyable and educated format in which race, class distinction and identity themes are intertwined. Larsen herself often struggles with identity, as she grew up being raised by an all-white household after her father, a black West Indian, disappeared from her life. Larsen depicts the theme of racial identity by using two women characters, both of which are attractive, and are “light” enough to be able

Nella Larsen had gained a reputation for herself in the early 20th century as a skilled writer and was highly praised by other acclaimed writers such as W. E. B. Du Bois. Known as one of the more distinguished Harlem Renaissance writers, Larsen often wrote novels and short stories that contained themes tied to social and cultural norms in society. Consequent of her .mixed race, Nella Larsen had often conflicted with issues of race and her racial identity; this oftentimes correlated with her writing. In her second novel, Passing, one of the societal/cultural norms Larsen addresses is the complicated topic of race in society. Nella Larsen questions society’s perception of race as merely

It was during this time that many Harlem Renaissance writers produced a number of texts circling around the topic of racial passing. In 1912, James Weldon Johnson anonymously released the controversial An Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; the story of an unnamed biracial protagonist who after years of struggling with his own racial identity makes a conscious decision to pass as a white man. In 1929, Nella Larsen published Passing, a novel depicting the lives of two light-skinned African American women, Irene and Clare. In Larsen’s novel, Clare has chosen to pass into white society while Irene has chosen not to purposefully cover up her racial background.

People's identity is shaped by their family, culture, and surrounding environment; each aspect of one’s identity has a varying degree of influence and can place a burden on each person. African-American writer Nella Larsen’s autobiographical novel, Quicksand, explores the contemporary construction of African American female identity by examining the intricate relationship between race, class, gender and sexuality and how these representations are stereotyped in Harlem Renaissance literature. She indisputably engages with the overarching themes of the Harlem Renaissance and touches on an even larger issue, the problematic tension between black and white culture. Larsen deconstructs preconceived notions of race and looks deeper into how such

The Harlem Renaissance was a turning point for many African Americans. A vast amount of literature was created specifically for this group during this era. For the first time, African Americans were being told that it was okay to be proud of who they were. This new consciousness and self-awareness was prominent in many works of literature, but several writers began exploring the darker side of this movement with literature that concentrated on the negative aspects of race relations in America. Nella Larsen 's novel Passing concentrates on this theme with the story of Clare, a tragic mulatto who "passes" as a white person. Not only is Passing representative of the plight of the tragic mulatto, it

Written in the earlier half of the 20th century, Passing is a plausible representation of race and community in the 1920s, as Americans remained separated on their ideas about how to deal with the proposed “race problem.” Like other authors before her, Larsen focuses on depicting both sides of the fence by giving the audience two biracial women. One lives in a black community and is immersed in African-American culture, and the other

Harlem Renaissance was an African-American movement in which writers pointed out racial consciousness in their writing. It brought out talented authors like Jean Toomer, Arna Bontemps and Paul Laurence Dunbar presented in their poems, the lives and struggles of African American in the early 1920s. They similarly expressed their feeling of bitterness by using oppression and suffering as themes for the poems. The authors portrayed how hard the life of the Black African slaves before was and showed how they dreamed for equality.

Nella Larsen’s novella Passing, set in Harlem, New York City in the 1920s, tells the story of the reunion of two childhood friends, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, and the resulting exploration of race and finding of one’s identity. The novel is titled for the central theme of racial “passing,” enacted by Clare Kendry, who passes as white with her husband, John Bellew, serving as the catalyst to the tragic events that propel the plot. Passing is defined as “the ability of a person to be regarded as a member of social groups other than their own, such as a different race, ethnicity, caste, social class, gender, age and/or disability status, generally with the purpose of gaining social acceptance.” The phrase became notorious as being the traversal from black to white during the early 20th century when race became a rapidly changing factor in America. Returning black soldiers from WWI, southern blacks migrating northward for industrial work, and black artists spawning the renowned Harlem Renaissance were all seeking the opportunities that only whites could acquire in a country plagued by segregation, anti-miscegenation, and Jim Crow laws, as well as anti-black hate groups such as the Ku Klux Klan. Due to the complexity of race, and it’s existence as a mere social construct as opposed to it being a real human trait, two women are exemplified as being able to pass: Irene and Clare. Clare Kendry represents the tragic mulatta, a stock character created in early African-American

Nella Larsen’s Passing was published in 1929, it was narrated by Irene Redfield as she reunites with a childhood acquaintance that is African American but passes as a white woman in all areas of her life. Clare, Irene’s acquaintance, who passes as white explores the uncertainty of reality as she steps into the lifestyles of an African-American during the Harlem Renaissance, and Irene also explores her own uncertainty. Though many critics have stated that race in the novel is mainly to serve as a source of suspense. I agree with Jennifer Brody the author of Clare Kendry’s True Colors, that race is the forefront issue within the story and it is related to issues of “class and sexuality” (1). Passing erupted a fascination of the realities of passing characters both in black and white characters. Revealing the interest of ambiguity that many African Americans faced during this time period. The author of Nella Larsen’s biography argues that the main characters are not completely opposite but are especially meant to be developed as complex and

Literary modernism was a reaction against realism, which was developed to depict real rural life (Campbell, 2017). As people began to relocate to city areas, many writers and artist took to redefining the meaning of a realistic life. It was believed that one way of life no longer fit for everyone and modernism introduced literature and art that began to question and show various perspectives of life. Peter Childs explains that “modernist writing “plunges” the reader into a confusing and difficult mental landscape which cannot be immediately understood…” (Childs 15). Uncommon poetry and prose stemmed from this modernist development. A popular one being Nella Larsen’s Passing, which encompasses two African American women who are particularly fair skinned and can both “pass” a white. The novel follows the troubles faced when denying one’s race and embracing it during the early twentieth century. Passing embraces the modernist ideas provided by Peter Childs by revealing the uncertain landscape of life through identity, sexuality, and family of mixed women and challenges it through the style of prose.