In the 1920s there was a heated debate within both the white and black social spheres surrounding the matter of racial identity. Nella Larsen’s Passing and Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Plum Bun both present the notion of racial passing. While Fauset, similar to Larsen demonstrates the socioeconomic initiative behind passing, Fauset never outright, defends passing for this purpose. Also, while Fauset correspondingly connects passing and gender, juxtaposing Larsen, she romanticizes and encourages marriage for women. Through comparing and contrasting the novels of Passing and Plum Bun, one can illustrate that the authors use their characters, Clare Kendry and Angela Murray, to critique the institution of marriage, while exposing and exploring the controversial …show more content…
topic of racial passing. In the novel, Passing, racial passing is a device used for surpassing society’s class structures. It offers one approach to reaching the economic stability that the passer formerly had not been able to retrieve. Clare Kendry’s drive for passing is not simply to escape the oppression of whites in society, but also the financial oppression she had to undergo throughout her life. Clare tells Irene that she passes for white for financial stability through her marriage to John Bellow, she asserts, “You had all the things I wanted and never had had. It made me all the more determined to get them, and others” (Larsen 26). Therefore, passing is an instrument to offer wealth as a possibility. Clare elects to pass as a result of the social success, she could achieve in the segregated world in which she lived. Irene’s asserts that she has never contemplated passing in her reply to Clare, as she states, “I’ve everything I want” thus, she emphasizes passing as a tool for nourishing a financially, comfortable life (Larsen 28). Gender and class standards are inherently connected to racial dialogue in Passing. Clare and Irene remain restricted not only by their race, but also by being female. They both rely on their spouse for the financially stable lives that they have and Clare and Irene make their choice on whether or not to pass in line with their social condition as females. Clare’s marriage to John is her access to white society, while marrying a well-off, African American doctor is Irene’s assurance to attain social success and prosperity within the black, social spheres. Nevertheless, Clare and Jack Bellew’s marriage provides her status and economic stability, the reason for which she passed. Clare states, “money if awfully nice to have. In fact, all things considered, I think ‘Rene, that it’s even worth the price” (Larsen 28). She clearly does not feel guilty about her choice to pass. Though, Clare is not madly, devoted to her marriage to John. In reality, the novel alludes to an allegation of infidelity. Clare is first introduced in Passing at the Drayton Hotel with a male companion. Irene observes that as this gentleman leaves Clare, “there was pleasure in his tones and a smile on his face” (Larsen 14). Further into the novel, Irene would recognize that Clare’s husband, John Bellew, “was not the man she had seen with Clare Kendry on the Drayton roof” (Larsen 38). Thus, there is an added allegation of an affair between Irene’s husband Brian Redfield and Clare. Yet, neither of the allegations about Brian or the gentleman at the Drayton gets confirmed throughout the course of the novel. In spite of this, Clare declares that she does not worry about endangering her marriage to John, as she expresses to Irene that, “it’s just that I haven’t any proper morals or sense of duty, as you have, that makes me act as I do… Why, to get the things I want badly enough, I’d do anything, hurt anybody, throw anything away. Really, ‘Rene, I’m not safe” (Larsen 81). Clare’s marriage to John is in such danger, not even their daughter, Margery, can protect it. Clare asserts, “children aren’t everything… if it wasn’t for her [Margery], I’d do it anyway. She’s all that hold me back. But if Jack finds out, if our marriage is broken, that lets me out. Doesn’t it?” (Larsen 81,106). Similar to Clare Kendry’s marriage in Larsen’s Passing, Fauset emphasizes the socioeconomic aspects that may drive mulattoes, such as Angela Murray to pursue racial passing. Also, Angela personifies a certain aspiration, almost reflective of the American Dream, to achieve social success in hopes of securing a well-off life, all the while undermining any chance of using race as an indicator. In other words, Angela cannot reveal her true race as she tenaciously, strives for economic stability when she passes, “she [Angela] saw her life rounding out like a fairy tale. Poor, coloured—coloured in America; unknown, a nobody! And here at her hand was the forward thrust shadow of love and of great wealth” (Fauset 131). To Angela, racial passing is a device for her to achieve her goal of social and financial success. Angela turns down a chance at a relationship with Anthony simply due to his lack of wealth. He cannot provide her the financial stability she desires, “she was sick of tragedy; she belonged to a tragic race. God knows it’s time for one member of it to be having a little fun” (Fauset 143). Thus is it is only through the ironic ways of passing as white that she can find this “fun.” Particularly, for an individual to engage in any type of social “fun,” they must first transform racially. That is, prior to undergoing any social transformation they must pass, in order to gain certain resources to have “fun.” Therefore, the passer hopes that the rewards of passing will be worth the consequences. In this manner, Angela favors Roger to Anthony, because of his riches, not because of love or affection. Consequently, she attains, briefly, with Roger what she aimed at when deciding to pass, “hers was a mixture of materialism and hedonism, and at this moment, the latter quality was upper most in her life” (Fauset 207). Just as it is in Passing, gender and class standards are inherently connected in Plum Bun also.
Fauset’s conduct concerning gender issues differs from Larsen’s. In Passing, it is obvious that Clare’s marriage to John is repressive. It may or may not mean to Larsen that marriage is, in the end, oppressive to the woman. However, it is clear that Larsen critiques women on, somewhat, deceiving themselves via devoting themselves to a marriage that stands broken and ultimately, overpowering. Clare’s marriage to John is very repressive, it ensures that her passing is a permanent act and prevents any chance of Clare being able to ultimately return to the black community or establish an identity. In contrast, Fauset zealously, encourages marriage. In Plum Bun, Angela, merely passing as white is unable to achieve social and financial success on her own, she also requires a white husband, “She was young, she was temporarily independent, she was intelligent, she was white. She remembered an expression ‘free, white and twenty-one,’—this was what it meant then, this sense of owning the world, this realization that other things being equal all things were possible… To accomplish this she must have money and influence; indeed, since she was so young, she would need even protection; perhaps it would be better to marry a white man. People would say ‘I’m going to have my portrait done by ‘Mory.’’ But all this would call for position, power, wealth. And again she said to herself… ‘I might marry—a white man. Marriage is the easiest way for a women to get those things, a white man have them” (Fauset 88, 111-112). Furthermore, one should stay aware of the fact that in Plum Bun, Fauset distinguishes that African Americans cherish marriage, whereas certain white characters, such as Paulette Lister and Roger Fielding endorse free love. As soon as Angela regrets and renounces her fling with Roger, and acquires a sense of financial independence when she immerses herself in her work, she then
attempts to get back Anthony. “For by now he was representing not only surcease from loneliness but peace and security. Now she saw [marriage] as an end in itself; for women certainly; the only; the most desirable and natural end. From this state, a gifted, ambitious woman might reach forth and acquit herself well in any activity. But marriage must be there first, the foundation, the substratum” (Fauset 274). In contrast to Larsen, whose depiction of Clare’s damaged, marriage exposes that she does not glorify the institution of marriage, one may argue that Fauset, indeed, values the institution and feels that no matter how independent or successful, women should get married. In closing, satirical that she designates her novel as Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral. The novel is the representative of the existing conditions throughout the 1920s. Plum Bun presentation is almost as a propaganda piece to challenge the discriminatory white society, it is as if Fauset is attempting to undermine the stereotypes, to stimulate racial awareness among the black community, and almost in a sense criticizes racial passing as betraying their African American roots. In contrast, Larsen in Passing has a different attitude, as she does not glorify but criticizes the ideologies of the 1920s. Larsen challenges the notion of determining one’s personal identity and actions by conforming to these social ideologies. The novels were both established in the same conditions of the 1920s, yet they personified different attitudes on the subjects of racial and social ideologies. Larsen yearns for a social sphere in which the notion of races would disappear and that women would not have to use their body to establish security for their social and economic wellbeing. In Passing, Larsen reveals the act of passing not only dissolves these concepts of race that have been socially constructed and imposed, but also offers a sense of creativity, allowing one to develop a brand new identity, and provides the passer the opportunity to obtain financial success and enjoy the benefits that accompany it. Fauset, throughout Plum Bun, uses the act of passing to undermine the stereotypes that accompany having black blood. Fauset also reveals the socioeconomic initiative behind passing. Its portrayal is one of deceit, betraying one’s African American roots, and represents the possibility of damaging one’s personal identity in the process
In this day and age, women have liberties that are often taken for granted. Women have the freedom to choose which university they will attend (if they plan on attending college), what career they wish to pursue, and also whom their mate in marriage will be. In early American days, liberties of women were looked upon from society as being wealthy and holding high social status. Many did not have the opportunity to pursue a career, much less decide what university they preferred to attend. They were fortunate to even have the opportunity receive a higher education beyond reading! Choosing the right men for their futures ensured them the luxuries they wished to maintain. If they were not already included in "upper society," their chances of upward mobility were slim to none. If the family lost their fortune, their only salvation was to be married back into wealth, another slim to none chance. This is the reality Rebecca Rush clearly paints in Kelroy. Rush projects her judgment on early American society and the role of women and marriage. Using the creation of two main characters, Mrs. Hammond and Emily Hammond, Rush is able to project her disapproval of society's ways through their opposing views and personalities.
The Gilded Six-Bits tells the story of a black family dealing with social restrictions and expectations during the 1930s. The story begins with a picturesque snapshot of a newlywed couple in Eatonsville, the first black integrated community in the United States. Zora Hurston in The Gilded Six Bits demonstrates gender stereotypes through a newlywed couple’s dialogue in the early 1900s. The quintessential women in American society was still the bosomy beautiful homemaker with a penchant for cooking and cleaning. The husband was usually placed on a pedestal as the breadwinner and had the more power in the household and in their marriage. The typical woman during the 1930s was expected to cook, clean, and take care of the household chores.
Each culture has its own way of living based upon the expectations of family living. Within those expectations, there is a dominant gender role that comes into play. In the essay “Once More to the Lake,” White lives a traditional life, where men play the more dominant role. In the essay “Street Scenes”, Hood brings the reader back to her home town through vivid memories of her modernized life, where she and her mother play the female dominant role in society. E.B White and Hood represent entirely different gender roles that are acquired in society within contrasting generations, containing similar values.
The term "passing" is shorthand for a racial passing which means people of one race passing for another. Nella Larsen's Passing is the story about two light-skinned women, who both have African blood. Clare Kendry is one of them who chooses and succeeds at "passing" and Irene Redfield is one who doesn't. They drive into each other twelve years later in a restaurant and Clare invites Irene to the tea party. The tea party which appears in the beginning of the story plays an important role throughout of the story because Jack Bellew enters the story at that moment. Jack is the white man who has a strong revulsion to African-Americans. He marries Clare, without knowing her secret ancestry. Jack's statements at the tea party lead the main characters' transformation throughout the story and shape the ending as well.
Hodes article places itself in the theoretical framing of Fields, Holt, and Stoler to argue “the scrutiny of day-to-day lives demonstrates not only the mutability of race but also, and with equal force, the abiding power of race in local settings.” By examining Eunice’s day-to-day experience, Hodes seeks to show how even though the identifiability of race may change from place-to-place and period-to-period, the power of race to effect lives is not challenged. Eunice’s story is an interesting one to highlight the changing nature of race construction. After the death of Eunice’s first husband, she found herself forced to do work she previously saw as work of black women. This helps strengthen Hodes’ argument of the power of race because just as Eunice was forced to work these jobs to survive, so...
The purpose of this essay is to highlight the issues that Dana, a young African-American writer, witness as an observer through time. As a time traveler, she witnesses slavery and gender violation during 19th and 20th centuries and examines these problems in terms of how white supremacy disrupts black familial bonds. While approaching Octavia Butler’s novel Kindred, this essay analyses how gender and racial violation relates to familial bonds through Dana 's experience in Tom Weylin 's plantation. It is argued that Butler uses pathos, ethos, and in rare cases logos, to effectively convey her ideas of unfairness during the American slavery, such as examining the roots of Weylin’s cruel attitude towards black people, growing conflicts between
Historically, people were granted certain rights and privileges based merely on their skin color. Persons of darker skin are often less opportune; persons of lighter skin are almost automatically glorified. However, with the mass interracial breeding, many African American descendants started to look “white” even though they were of “black” descent. Many “mulattos” used this to their advantage to acquire higher social status and respect. The act of identifying as a different race and hiding one’s true race is known as “passing.” In the short novel, “Passing” by Nella Larsen, it follows two childhood friends of mixed-race, Irene Westover/Redfield and Clare Kendry, who later reconnected later in their different adult lives; both appear to have light complexion but one embraces her ancestry while the other tries to “pass” as something else. The latter’s decision usually ends unpleasantly. So while it may seem beneficial to “pass,” the end result is that the truth will come out. Literary articles which critique “Passing” such as “Sororophobia” by Helena Michie and “Black Female Sexuality in Passing” by Deborah E. McDowell discusses the issues of passing. Juanita Ellsworth’s “White Negros” provide scenarios where skin color played a factor in education and professional experiences. Louis Fremont Baldwin’s “Negro to Caucasion, Or How the Ethiopian Is Changing His Skin” explains the different ways people pass and how it can be undetected. Blatantly “passing” as a different race can lead to catastrophe and should be avoided.
In the case of Amanda America Dickson, “her personal identity was ultimately bounded by her sense of class solidarity with her father, that is, by her socialization as David Dickson’s daughter, her gender role as a lady, and her racial definition as a person to whom racial categories did not apply.”1 This may mean that her freedom was less proscribed by race because she was not a male seeking political advantage. Some people of mixed-race in the nineteenth century South managed to create a personal identity and
In the novel, Passing, Nella Larsen presents two women, Clare and Irene who originate from the black community; however still yearn for an assured identity for themselves. Clare and Irene are childhood friends who even though being part black, are able to pass as white folk. Irene continues to be part of the black community and is considered a black woman, however this is on a superficial level. When it comes to her advantage, Irene occasionally passes as white. Clare on the other hand passes as a white woman; her lifestyle changed completely as to white standards and in. Although both women are in a dilemma regarding their true racial identity, they both wish to live as both black and white. Throughout the book, both women attempt to achieve an integrated identity, however fail do to so. Their failure in attempting to live a life both as black suggests and supports the idea that a person can only have one race as either black or white, not both.
...s appealing it is not without consequence. Clare, and those who choose to pass, are not free to embrace their whole identity and will always remain a threat to those they come in contact. Clare exemplified the archetypal character of the tragic mulatto, as she bought tragedy to her own life and all those she came in contact. Clare’s presence forced Irene to contend with feelings of internalized racism, and thus feelings of inferiority. Through diction, tone, and imagery Larsen makes it luminous to readers that "passing" may seem glamorous, however, the sacrifice one makes to do so is not without consequences for themselves and those they care about. Larsen does not allow her readers to perch on the belief that once a member of the dominate group ones life is not without pain and suffering. Every action, even those that seem to make life easier, have consequences.
Anne Moody’s Coming of Age in Mississippi and Mark Mathabane’s Kaffir Boy are both coming-of-age narratives that were written through the eyes and experiences of young people who grew up in a world of apartheid. Although, it should be noted that they both have parallels in their stories as well as distinctions one should take into account the times and places in which each occurred. While Coming of Age in Mississippi occurred during a Jim Crow era in the American South, between 1944 and 1968, Kaffir Boy’s autobiographical narrative occurred in the regime of South Africa’s apartheid struggle from 1960 to 1978 in the town of Alexandra. During the late 20th century both narratives offer a framework of racism, a value and yearn for education and the struggle and will to survive. This essay will compile how both narratives experienced their areas race-relations given the time and place that they are in.
The author distinguishes white people as privileged and respectful compare to mulattos and blacks. In the racial society, white people have the right to get any high-class position in job or live any places. In the story, all white characters are noble such as Judge Straight lawyer, Doctor Green, business-man George, and former slaveholder Mrs. Tryon. Moreover, the author also states the racial distinction of whites on mulattos. For example, when Dr. Green talks to Tryon, “‘The niggers,’…, ‘are getting mighty trifling since they’ve been freed. Before the war, that boy would have been around there and back before you could say Jack Robinson; now, the lazy rascal takes his time just like a white man.’ ” (73) Additionally, in the old society, most white people often disdained and looked down on mulattos. Even though there were some whites respected colored people friendly, there were no way for colored people to stand parallel with whites’ high class positions. The story has demonstrations that Judge Straight accepted John as his assistant, Mrs. Tryon honor interviewed Rena, and George finally changed and decided to marry Rena; however, the discrimination is inevitable. For example, when Mrs. Tryon heard Rena was colored, she was disappointed. “The lady, who had been studying her as closely as good manners would permit, sighed regretfully.” (161) There, Mrs. Tryon might have a good plan for Rena, but the racial society would not accept; since Rena was a mulatto, Mrs. Tryon could not do anything to help Rena in white social life. The racial circumstance does not only apply on mulattos, but it also expresses the suffering of black people.
During the wake of gender politics in the early twentieth century, Gertrude Stein and Sui Sin Far wrote immigration narratives that feature characters who reject traditional gender norms. As female writers, the intersection of gender, sexuality, and cultural identities inform how each character uses, rejects, reacts to traditional notions of femininity and masculinity. While Mrs. Spring Fragrance by Sui Sin Far and The Good Anna by Gertrude Stein feature characters that challenge traditional gender roles and assert their agency, The Good Anna features characters that challenge gender roles directly by not fitting into gendered expectations. Mrs. Spring Fragrance, on the other hand, features characters that seem to follow gender roles as prescribed
Within Tennessee Williams's story about love and abuse within marriage and challenging familial ties, there lie three very different characters that all see the world in vastly different ways. These members of a family that operate completely outside of our generation’s norms, are constantly unsure of themselves and their station within the binary not only of their familial unit, but within the gender binary that is established for them to follow. Throughout the story of the strange family, each character goes through a different arch that changes them irrevocably whether it is able to be perceived or not by those around them. The only male, Stanley is initially the macho force in the home who controls everything without question. He has no consequences for his actions against his wife and is never held accountable for treating the people around him poorly; this lasts until Blanche arrives. Blanche is an outwardly demure, but spirited young woman who after experiencing untold misfortune breaks mentally and decides to no longer care what others may think of her. She lives her life lavishly and foolishly by having dalliances with younger or richer men who shower her with gifts and attention to get sex from her all too willing form. Her effect on Stanley is one of temptation and challenge; she continually tries to convince her sister that she is too good for the man and in turn fosters a resentment for her in him. Stella acts as the antithesis of Stanley and Blanche’s extreme personalities. She is innocence and purity where they are the darkness that threatens to overtake her life. Throughout, Stella is a pawn that they both try to use against the other to no real avail as she is determined to make the best choice for herself. In th...
...fective in presenting both sides of their story accenting the differences in life standards, opportunities and rights. However Callum’s despair still affects Sephy, even when you are the wealthy daughter of a respected politician, Sephy will never be happy until she can be with Callum in an equal society. I think the authors values and attitudes are clearly shown through Sephy’s unhappiness. Blackman believes love and family to be more important than business, material goods, money and skin colour.