Summary Of Passing By Nella Larsen

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

Nella Larsen’s Passing uses the two main characters to explore how the idea of racial identity is not a discussion that is black and white, but rather one that is grey. The story is utilized to demonstrate how some individuals of black complexion fell trap to societal standards, causing them to abandon their own race in search of better life. But, in all actuality, the text argues that the pursual of another identity ultimately causes an individual to lose their own self identification.

Nella Larsen’s Passing challenges the traditional ideology of ethnic, racial, and gender integrity, transforming the concept of an “acceptable”- definition of identity, which both individuals and society can appreciate. By developing exceptionally round characters whom are unstable and volatile, Larsen builds monologues to display how easy it is to lose one’s identity. Clare Kendry, challenges the stereotypes, society has ascribed to her. Leaving her in a limbo for identity white-or-black, however, she never has the chance to align to a particular identity because of her mysterious death, while Irene Redfield, becomes obsessed and envious of Clare, destroying her own sense of self by committing psychological suicide, in terms of assimilation

She criticizes the way the blacks walk, talk, and live; and she states, "Who wants to be mixed up wid uh rusty black man, and uh black woman goin' down de street in all dem loud colors, and whoopin' and hollerin' and laughin' over nothin'?" (Hurston 135). Hypocritical of her own culture, she works in her successful eating establishment while she pronounces that "[c]olored folks don't know nothin' about no business," a truth which she believes further connects her life to the white community (Hurston 136). Mrs. Turner grasps at minute differences in shading as differences in intelligence because she is substantially more cruel to "those more negroid than herself in direct ratio to their negroness" and because she expects "[a]nyone who look[s] more white folkish than herself [to be] better than she [is]" (Hurston 138). Her prejudice against her own people is alarming; she sees her insults of a lower culture as rungs in the ladder of social prestige, bringing her ever closer to Caucasian characteristics. As she associates her lighter skin with the complexions of white people, Mrs. Turner argues, "Ah got white folks' features in mah face," a visage lacking the "flat nose and liver lips" she stereotypically associates with black facial features (Hurston 136). She constantly judges and condemns while she worships a paradise of "straight-haired, thin-lipped, high-nose boned white seraphs" (Hurston 139). Examining the dark-skinned humans around

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

Irene’s thoughts and feelings are being filtered through the view of a separate entity: the narrator. And this filtration mimics the alienation caused by racism. Racism is a prominent theme in the novel, from how Clare is received when she pass as white to Clare’s husband’s attitude towards people of black lineage. By examining the role that third person narration plays in Passing, it will be seen how third person narration does not give a voice to the person of narration, but, instead, reinforces the power dynamic create by racism: between the oppressed and the oppressor. The interaction between the narrator and Irene portray race through the perception, silencing, and the breakthrough of oppressed

By the end of Wallace Thurman’s novel, “The Blacker the Berry,” the main character Emma Lou has a revelation about herself. Her whole life she thought her dark skin color prevented her from good opportunities. She was hyper-sensitive towards her color and tried to make up for it by fitting in with the right type of people. She has economic freedom and have fit in with the right type of people. Emma was desperate to fit in with type of people that treated her inferiorly, but once she came to terms with the strength of her African American background, she is able to identify with who she is, a black woman.

Clare is of mixed heritage and passes, which is a member of one racial group portraying the role as a member of a different racial group, by the light color of her skin. Clare is married to John Bellew, a white man who knows nothing of her African American heritage, and has a daughter whose name is Margery. She keeps this secret because her husband abominates the mentions of African Americans, and to "pass" to receive things she would not be able to receive if people know she is biracial. Irene is married to an African American doctor and sometimes passes, but her husband is aware. She has two sons, who she cannot pass with if they are present because of the color of their skin.

The novel, Passing by Nella Larsen, was written and based on Nella Larsen’s own family life where she was treated terribly by her mother, who was white. Shown by Thadious Davis Nella Larsen, the novel Passing by Nella Larsen may be built on the suffering and events that Nella Larsen faced as a child of mixed ancestry in a time when it was not accepted like it is in the present. As Davis stated, Nella Larsen wrote many of her novels with reversed names and “paternal/maternal roles” making Clare supposed to represent Nella Larsen’s father and John Bellew representing Nella Larsen’s mother. This would explain many things about Nella Larsen’s difficult childhood and the roles her parents participated in shaping her childhood years. Such as John, Clare’s wife, representing Nella Larsen’s white mother who was not a caring mother towards Nella Larsen because of her mixed ancestry. Like John, Nella Larsen’s mother was a racist who was in a relationship with a person of non-white ancestry that was passing as white because of their lighter skin and to gain more equality than they had before.

Throughout the book Passing by Nella Larsen, we see an unusual relationship developing between Clare and Irene, which differs from relationships between men and men, and men and women. The two are evidently envious and catty towards each other, but what is not plainly visible about this jealous, malicious relationship, is that it generates an erotic attraction between the women. These two women are attracted to each other not by love, but by hatred, a type of relationship that completely deviates from the standard. When Brian, Irene’s husband, grows aware of this attraction and its origins, it draws him away from Irene, right into Clare’s hands, not because of Irene’s reason that he wants to learn of “the other” perspective, but because he’s

Passing” by Nella Larsen is a great piece of art, that is mostly concentrated on the act of passing as a member of other race in order to assimilate with them and cover their own race. I have to be honest through reading the book I developed love hate relationship because how this book was structured. It is filled with really charismatic personalities such as Claire Kendry or Irene Redfield but at the same time I was really frustrated how they behave themselves regarding their race. For someone who never had any conflicts regarding race it was really hard for to rationalize Clare’s or Irene’s actions that involved covering their own identity to benefit from it either socially or financially. Book still lacks clarity in most of the cases that happen in story, for example ending where Clare dies but it might be also seen as way for reader to think and guess who might be the murderer. Even though this story takes place in the early 20th century when the African American society was still harshly treated by white society, I think we can still see a lot of racial conflicts that happen nowadays among all races that live in big cities such as New York or Paris and etc. Also, depiction of how race might be sign of belonging to specific class was interesting topic. Most importantly what frustrates me most in the story is how racial difference is troubling or forcing characters act in specific ways. By that I mean how Clare went extra mile and even married a white bigot John Bellew

Clare’s perspective on doing “anything [she] wants” is not defined by being in the workforce which is suggested by her mom and is the route Moses took. Rather, Clare derives her pleasure from defying these “rules” made for girls and finding her identity and the independence that follows, enabling her to develop a greater sense of human