Identity
Passing presents two women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, who makes two different choices yet whose lives intertwine in startling ways. Compare the characters of each. What are each woman’s strengths? Her weakness? What is each woman’s attitude towards race? How did these attitudes influence the novel's plot?
The author of passing Nella Larsen undermines the historic conception of gender, ethnic and race where she transforms the idea of a preferred definition of identity. Larsen uses unstable characters to show how easily one can lose his sense of self. Due to her timely death, Clare does not have a chance to relate to a specific race where she ends up breaking the tragic mullato pattern. Conversely, Irene being obsessed with jealous of
…show more content…
Clare is only looking for excitement where she perpetuates but also reconstructs this pattern as she does not want to regain any racial pride by not seeking out blacks. In this case, Clare is an exception. The fate of Clare is predictable though most of the things about her are not. Clare’s motive for passing is that she may acquire material wealth in the form of money and also have a social worth. She achieves this by marrying a rich man who is also racist. Clare deserts her identity but expressed no fear or grief of her acts of becoming an outsider to her race. She is also selfish and enigmatic which is evident when she says “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 Para 148). Clare is a representation of the dramatized version of the other women. She is dependent on her husband for all materials possession, identity, and security. At the end, Clare finally passes away due to the strains of keeping up with her
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.
As evidenced in Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, and other novels of the 1800’s, women writers of this period seem to feel very repressed. Leonce Pontellier seemed to be fond of his wife, and treated her as one would treat a loved pet. In the beginning of the story it describes him as looking at her as a “valuable piece of personal property”. He does not value her fully as a human being more as a piece of property. However, he expects her to be everything he thinks she should be. Her children also expect total sacrifice from her. She obviously feels unfulfilled in life and inadequate in many facets. She does not feel like an artist, she does not feel like a satisfied wife or mother.
so it is understandable what she went through. The problem is then, just like now, that people believe they have to change to be successful. That the only way to have financial success is to act, or in Clare’s case be whiter.
Irene considers Clare to be "selfish, cold and hard" (Larsen 144). Irene also feels that Clare does not have "even 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). Although there may be some truth to this statement, 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 po...
Nella Larsen 's ' novel "Passing" introduces two dissimilar experiences of "crossing" the race line by two African-American women. With an accomplished and engaging plan, Larson is able to deal with subjects such as sexuality, identity, race, and class division with the use of wit and allegory. Passing is a moving, emotional story, describing the struggles experienced by both Irene and Claire in their fight to support and defend their own race and endure polite society. All these social issues and problems seem to culminate in the end of the question; is what the person you are inside, defined by your race on the outside?
Tragic mulatto characters such as Clare transport unforeseen horrors when they make the selfish decision to reinsert themselves back into the world they so desperately desired to flee. Larsen makes this point clear through the diction she uses when describing the self-esteem destruction Irene undergoes once Clare has reinserted herself into Irene's life, and the situations Irene finds herself as a direct result of Clare. Prior to Clare’s reentrance into her life Irene is a self-assured, independent, and confident woman; however, she soon turns self-conscious, dependent, and hesitant. Upon viewing Clare at the hotel Irene is struck by Clare’s ...
Sometimes in life, identity gets mixed up and can become a confusing aspect of life. People are a product of their environment, which is a factor in shaping identity. The protagonist in the book, Vanessa MacLeod, witnesses and experiences both types of identity. She sees the influence of the Canadian national identity in her Grandfather Connor, Scottish heritage in her Grandmother MacLeod, Irish heritage in her Uncle Dan, which ultimately influence Vanessa’s personal identity. Canada is one of the major influences of Grandfather Connor’s identity.
She runs into Clare Kendry, a light-skinned African American woman from Irene 's long-forgotten childhood past who is married to John Bellew, a successful white businessman who knows nothing of her racial identity and by whom she has had a daughter. The two happen to be passing when the bump into each other on a rooftop restaurant in Chicago. The whole narrative is centered on the emotionally charged relations between two light-skinned African-American women. Both these woman started out in the same place but chose very different paths in
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
Constance's family life is a major point of interest in the book and is really what the story revolves around. Coming from a broken family, with her dad leaving Constance, otherwise known as Clare with 5 other brothers and sisters and her mum. The Father was hardly around only to bring Christmas presents and food. Clare was abused by her mother everyday, terrible physical abuse was inflicted on the growing body of Clare, benign cancer of the breasts caused by constant punches and squeezing from her mother. Emotionally shut out and neglected by her mother, taunted and teased all the time by her mother and her new husband, frequently called UGLY and told she was not welcome and unwanted. Home life was so bad Clare took herself off to social services and asked to be put into a home but was refused, feeling helpless and life was not living she attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of bleach. "I felt sick, happy and sad. I was happy because tonight if the bleach worked I would die. No more Tomorrows. Hip, Hip hooray." This quote shows the extent of the abuse her mother used on Constance, her home life was unbearable. It is very sad to think that many children and teenagers are stuck in abusive families with no escape.
Clare with pleasant tones, especially for Eva. She describes Eva to be a pure-hearted Christian loving every person who loves her. She sees slaves and white to be the same. Stowe never poetries Eva as anything bad, not even once. On pg.
FLINDERS UNIVERSITY Experienced by Mr. Effendi Limbong S.pd M.ed Library In Flinders University have fourth floor, In the second floor have a computer for search a book , it is not silent room, and inside that have a café. In third floor specific for silent room. Just 2 weeks for lend a book.
One of the most obvious themes in both "Passing" and "Recitatiff" is prejudice, social status and the huge role that race plays in the novels. In "Recitatiff" racism is first introduced when Twyla's mom states that the people of Roberta's race "never washed their hair and smelled funny." Mary expressing that to Twyla shows how she was prejudice to the contrary race. Very similar in "Passing" Clare acts prejudice against her own race stating that white society is more superior and that more light-skin women should pass as white. It is stated that Clare lives a very luxurious life along the side of her husband that she likes to make known to most. In many occasions it is interpreted that Clare believes she's better than Irene because of her luxurious
Nellore is one of the most important cities and municipal corporations in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is also the 6th most populous city in this state. Nellore city is the administrative headquarters of Sri Potti Sri Ramulu Nellore district. Hyderabad, the state capital of Andhra Pradesh, is around 450 kilometer away from Nellore. The city is situated on the banks of the Penneru River. Another important city of South India, Chennai is 193 kilometer away from Nellore and Nellore is situated on the Chennai-Kolkata Highway, or the National Highway 5, which is an integral part of the Golden Quadrilateral Expressway Project undertaken by the Indian Government. Nellore is known for the production of mica and gold jewellery. Apart from these two, aquaculture and cultivation of paddy are two very important engagements of the people of Nellore.