Nella Larsen's Passing

Nella Larson’s novel Passing, tells the story of two African American women Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry who embark on a journey to “reconnect” with one another. Although, similar in appearance, these two women were very different in the way they determined race. For women like Irene and Clare who were physically able to “pass” as white women, despite having African American heritage the typical connotation that race was distinguished by the color of one’s skin did not apply to them. As a result, many women like Irene and Clare would cross the racial lines. The character Clare Kendry was the perfect example of “passing.”

Brown v. Board of Education During the 1950’s, aspects of slavery and discrimination were still prevalent in the United States, even after the 13th amendment was passed in 1865, which abolished slavery. African Americans were separated from the whites and forced into worse facilities under the justification of “separate, but equal.” This is the time period and world that Linda Brown, an eight year old African American girl, had to endure. The United States had old policies and old rules that were still in place and it was only a matter of time until someone took a stand.

“I was squinting because I was in that silent agony that characterized all of my childhood summers… my dilated and vulnerable eyes exposed to the summer brightness” (241). Audre Lorde uses the agony of her childhood as a symbol of how she viewed the trip to Washington with her family. If she had have grown up in a different neighborhood, with different parents, or even if she had grown up white, she would have experienced the trip differently in a sense that she would be treated with respect wherever she went. The late 1940’s had several groups struggling to find a way to fit in. “Normal” in 1947 was being white.

In the story, Irene felt that “He was discontented, yet there were times when she felt he was possessed of some intense secret satisfaction,”. (pt.3) This quote conveys the idea that Irene is starting to become suspicious of Brian, because the part where she says “ he was discontented’ gives it away that Brian is not happy anymore. Whenever a man feels this way with their wife and has been seeing other women, it is because they don’t feel the same tension that the guy feels with his new women. It is ironic how in the story, Irene’s husband, Brian, is cheating on her, similar to Larsen’s situation where her husband had an affair with one of the staff where he

Passing is the second novel by Harlem Renaissance writer Nella Larsen. This novel follows the relationship between two childhood friends, one who is proud of her racial heritage and one who has passed into the white world to marry for wealth. Irene Redfield runs into Clare Kendry Bellew on the roof of the Drayton Hotel in Chicago. At first Irene does not recognize the blond beauty, but as they begin to speak Irene realizes exactly who this beautiful woman is. Irene wants nothing to do with Clare, but finds herself pulled in by her charms.

Racism was always a big issue and still occurs today. The story “Passing” took place in the 1920’s during the Harlem Renaissance and it spoke about the term “Passing” which indicates that African American’s who looked lighted skin can go to public places without being discriminated. In “Passing” Nella Larsen demonstrates how racism causes jealousy, resentment, and dishonesty in relationships. The idea is conveyed through inner conflict, the conflict between the main characters and how the Harlem Renaissance period inflicts tension in relationships.

Racial passing is the transition of a member of the African American into the white community due to their outward appearance or biracial features. According to Robert Fike Jr's "The Passing of Passing: A Peculiarly American Racial Tradition Approaches Irrelevance" the difficult situation of people living double lives trying to pass as whites for a permanent or temporary convenience during a time when it was "dangerous to be black, and especially dangerous to be black in a white neighborhood, or white establishment" inspired a number of major authors to write on the subject. Nella Larson's 1929 novel Passing focuses on the amiguousity of identity, and the process in which African Americans "passed" into the Caucasian race to avoid the stigma associated with their African Ancestry. This dilemma is shown through the conflict between the two main characters in the novel, Clare Kenry and Irene Redfeild. Irene Redfield is a sensitive, level headed African

It is often said that a new definition of a woman arose in the 1920s. But is that true? While most women experienced many newfound freedoms in the 1920s, black women could not explore these freedoms as easily as white women. In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry grew up in Chicago together and are now both two wives and mothers in New York City during the 1920s, but there is a big difference between them. The novel’s title refers to light-skinned black women masquerading as white women for social benefits.

Nella Larson’s novella, Passing, includes characters who struggle with their identity. Clare Kendry, specifically, struggles with her identity tremendously. Clare was born as an African American woman, but because of her pale skin, it is easy for her to be accepted as a white woman. During this time period, African Americans were not granted the same privileges that whites were. Whites were looked at as superior to African Americans.

In Nella Larsen’s short story, Passing, jealousy plays a prominent part in the relationship between Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, the two main characters. Both women strive to secure their place in a highly judgemental society; they are filled with envy for the other's successes and insecurities about their own lives. While each woman has a relatively successful life, they analyze each other's lives, uncovering something that they are missing out on in their own life. This sense of envy persists throughout the story, from the subtle jealousy that Irene displays when seeing Clare living as a white woman to the threats that Clare's presence poses to Irene's marriage and social standing. By using the presence of jealousy, Larsen highlights

Langston Hughes promotes tolerance and an understanding of racism in his poem “Harlem.” The poem questions what happens when people’s dreams are deferred, or postponed. He asks the readers if the dream dries “like a raisin in the sun” or if it “stinks like rotten meat” or if, instead, “does it explode” (Hughes 201). This use of negative imagery shows the reader what will happen if others, namely the African Americans Hughes wrote about, cannot reach their dreams. Dreams are a piece of people’s identity because it shows what they want out of life, so if their dreams shrink or rot, so too does the dreamer.

Passing, a novel by Nella Larsen, addresses the issue of race by telling the story of two African American women - Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield - who represent different aspects of passing1. In the novel, passing refers to the process of crossing the color line, where a light skinned person who belongs to the black racial community enjoys white privilege2. However, people who pass struggle with double consciousness as they long to honor their race without necessarily being associated with it3. The novel is highly invested in ambiguity to show the fluidity and complexity of race, and how it paves the way for passing4. Passing illustrates the struggle African Americans face with their unchosen race and their attempt to control their identity

Family can be the greatest support system a person has. However in confined space with no privacy, it’s possible to build up tension within each individual. In the book A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry. She establishes a visual representation on how the lives of colored people was at the time. Specifically on a family named the Youngers that live basically in poverty, in the city of South Side Chicago.

When I was 12 years old, my mother began her extended relationship with the literature of Terry McMillian. Particularly, her books Waiting to Exhale and Mama, which for my mother, captured a specific moment in her life so genuinely, that I often found her crying or writing out her own thoughts during her private reading sessions. Watching my mother’s engagement with these books and Terry McMillian’s depiction of black female baby boomers was exhilarating, but more importantly, an indirect invitation to repair our relationship that was becoming fractured. Coming of age as a black tween girl in the nineties was difficult. Especially since I was entering a new phase of my young life and challenging my mother aggressively throughout the process because I did not quite understand what I was experiencing.

Zora Neale Hurston does not consider herself to be “tragically colored,” however, she might indeed consider Langston Hughes’s speaker to be. She appears to be all about being accepted for herself without necessary regard for the color of her skin, and she does not need to be given special allowances because her ancestors were slaves. Mr. Hughes, on the other hand, writes about slavery and their abominable treatment with references to his excellence in expression through the poems “Mulatto” and “Song for a Dark Girl.” I believe while acknowledging that they are both persons of color, they are expressing their artistry from different platforms. Mr. Hughes might respond to Ms. Hurston by reminding her of her heritage and not to dismiss it so lightly.