Similarities Between Passing And The Great Gatsby

Nella Larsen’s Passing and F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby both share a miserable tone and displays the concept of what an accepted identity means. By creating eccentric roles for each characters in “The Great Gatsby” and “Passing”, both author conveys how simple it is to lose themselves. One of the characters in passing, Clare Kendry, who abandoned her real ethnicity, never had the opportunity to associate herself with a specific race because of her inconvenient death. Irene Redfield was part of the reason for her suicide because she was jealous of Clare, she destroyed her mentally until she lost all her senses and control over her emotions. In “The Great Gatsby” the protagonist, Jay Gatsby, tried to create a new life for himself. Frankly,

he came from a poor family and was never satisfied with what he had. He created a fantasy for himself where he was rich, hoping people will never recognize who he was before. He hoped to achieve this dream he had been wanting for so long with the new him, but having a new identity doesn’t always mean it’ll help achieve his goals that already happened before or can’t be repeated. Troubled people who aren’t who they say they are, are the ones that wishes to be noticed. Some people think it’s an obligation to mask their true identity just to get the acceptance invitation into society because they think they can’t reach the expectations society sets. Sometimes, the expectations society sets are unattainable.
People’s ambition can lead to a positive or sorrow ending. Their desire of wanting something that’s unreachable can cause self destruction. With determination and ambition in his new life, he wanted to be rich, so he managed to make that happen. He wanted Daisy, but she slipped away. Even with his new identity as a rich man with status, he still couldn’t get what he needed; Daisy’s love. Daisy was part of his missing piece to his picture perfect world, so he has to have her. Gatsby looks like a polite gentleman, but he is willing to be deceitful to get what he wants. When he was yearning for money, he was shameless about it and became a bootlegger. “She only married you because I was poor” (Fitzgerald, P. 130). This quote displays a disappointed tone and shows that Daisy is a golddigger and a materialistic woman. She only loves men for their money and not who they are. Gatsby truly loved Daisy and wanted to provide for her, but her heart were on the money. He went through and changed his identity just to get Daisy back, yet Daisy still isn’t his. Daisy, his motivation, made him who he is. This motivation ended up destroying his life and the life he created.
Clare Kendry is a biracial woman who passes just to live the luxurious life. She passes as a white woman because she wanted white privileges and she’ll be treated like how society treats whites. Having white privileges means having access to items she’s never had before. She hid her true self just to change her identity to be a rich white woman. Her husband, John Bellew, is a racist and doesn’t know that Clare passes. Clare and Gatsby both wanted something they desired for a long time. With a mindset like that, they had to change their identity to get to where they are. Although, they felt like they were happy and satisfied, they weren’t. “For I am lonely, so lonely” (Larsen, P.3). This quote emphasizes a melancholy tone from Clare and how much she misses her true identity, she doesn’t want to pass anymore. Clare wants to go back to her roots, but once she reveal herself to her husband, he will never forgive her. Knowing that her husband hates blacks to the point where he will kill them, it makes Clare anxious and she doesn’t know how to confess to him. When Clare died, John Bellew was not around when everyone went to check up on her. Clare died once she revealed that she’s passing. If she wasn’t passing in the first place, she wouldn’t had married John and John wouldn’t need to kill her when he found out that she was black. Her death was because of her hidden and new identity which she posed.
Back in the 1920s, blacks were looked down upon and were known as a disgrace to humanity.

Racism played a huge role between conflicts that happened. Blacks were treated unfairly by the whites. White people were powerful people that had control over Clare was passing because she wanted to get out of the white oppression over blacks. “Catlike...the best word that describe Clare Kendry” (Larsen, P.2). Clare’s friend Irene Redfield’s presents a despairing tone because Clare decides to pass as a white woman instead of embracing her true race. Irene looks down upon people who passes by creating a new identity for themselves just so society would accept who she is as a new woman and not looked down upon. In the “Great Gatsby”, Gatsby wanted to achieve the American dream. “ he hurried the phrase educated at Oxford” (Fitzgerald.P.65). This quote that was said by the narrator, Nick Carraway, demonstrates an anxious tone from Gatsby when he was telling Nick about himself and his wealth. The American dream was to be wealthy and powerful. Being capable of having those two in his hands, he’s able to show Daisy his love by showering her with all the money he had. In retrospect, Daisy left Gatsby because he was poor and not for who he is. Now that Gatsby came back with money, Daisy still doesn’t want him. Both characters changing their identity to be someone else, thinking it would help make the situation better just makes it worst. Money and changing your own identity, can’t buy happiness instead, it brings self destruction and misery to their

lives.