Nella Larsen

The weight of a guilty conscience It is easy to get caught up in one’s own world when life picks up the pace and everything seems hectic; along the way decisions are made unconsciously to let go of people who were once held dear. It is easy to be torn between what appears to be important and what is trivial. Amidst the mess that is life, various things contend for one’s attention, and what really matters might not be so clear. In “The Last Rung on the Ladder” the guilt that consumes the narrator

HARLEM RENAISSANCE by William R. Nash ^ The term ‘‘Harlem Renaissance’’ refers to the efflorescence of African-American cultural production that occurred in New York City in the 1920s and early 1930s. One sometimes sees Harlem Renaissance used interchangeably with ‘‘New Negro Renaissance,’’ a term that includes all African Americans, regardless of their location, who participated in this cultural revolution. Followers of the New Negro dicta, which emphasized blacks’ inclusion in and empowerment

Nella Larsen’s Quicksand illustrates the main protagonist’s struggles with her identity, especially in regards to race and gender expectations. Helga is always put in a position to conform to what society expects of her, and the fact that she comes from a biracial background further stratifies her identity/status as an individual. In the novel Quicksand, Helga’s interactions with certain male characters and her life events highlight the inescapable social structure that oppresses women, especially

tension leading to the uncanny moment. The uncanny moment occurs when “Suddenly her small fright increased. Her neighbor had risen and was coming towards her. What was going to happen now? Looking up at her, Irene’s suspicions and fears vanished”(Larsen 8). This moment follows Freud’s definition of uncanny because of it being a moment when Clare appears to be both familiar and unfamiliar to Irene. Clare is familiar in the sense that they were childhood friends, though also unfamiliar because Irene

the lives of women of color, in particular, black women, have lessened making life better for them, mostly they stayed the same forming a sort of normalcy in cultural expectations. The varied minefields are illustrated in the novel Passing by Nella Larsen in the setting of the 1920s and the lyrics of black female MCs of the 1980s like Salt n Pepa and Queen Latifah. What Become Better Women of color have more opportunities to explore other capacities to live their lives in more recent decades

entirely friendly.” (Larsen ). However, passing also implies that the person who chooses to do it goes along with society's expectations of them. It means that they don't really prize their cultural/social identity and will conform to standards that are ultimately stifling them and trampling on their way of life. The act of passing essentially results in a person losing their connection with the community they have been a part of from their childhood. In Passing by Nella Larsen, it is pretty apparent

What would you do if you could choose to conceal your race and live a new life under a different identity? For thousands of Americans, the choice to become someone new outweighed remaining as they once were. However, in choosing to reinvent themselves, many began to also living in a constant state of fear -- trying avoid getting caught in their lie. The phenomenon is known as of ‘passing’. Drawing from literary and cinematic works that explores what it means to ‘pass’, this essay will present how

To name a few of the women writers are: Jessie Fauset, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston. Houston was seen as one of the most significant unread authors in America. Her work did end up reaching hundreds of thousands of readers, and it provided a new generation of writing. Toni Morrison’s powerful writings explored

Nella Larsen’s Passing explores the dynamics of privilege within a purely African American context. Instead of focusing on the privilege of White Americans, which is obvious and self-evident, Nella Larsen focuses on the privilege of a certain social class of African Americans: the upper class Harlem socialites. This is done through Irene, who embodies this form of privilege. In fact, Irene’s obsession with security is only possible through her privilege. She also rejects passing in superficial terms

of historical events which the latter merely details. In that respect, the prudent scholar may learn much about the nature of the struggles of those who are foreigners to conventional white American culture by reading a pair of works of literature, Nella Larsen's Passing and James McBride's The Color of Water. Despite the fact that Larsen's tale is largely fictional whereas McBride's narrative is an autobiographical work based on his life as an African American and his mother's life as a white woman