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Social construction of race and how it affects society
Literary analysis everyday use
Social construction of race and how it affects society
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Passing, by Nella Larsen is a book of racial identification focused on the reunion of two childhood friends, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield. Clare and Irene’s relationship reflects jealousy and envy throughout the story. This novel tells a story of two African American woman who are very similar, yet different with their experiences of “passing” as white. In passing, Clare and Irene create a unique feeling of identity and belonging. Irene has the ability to suppress her feelings as well as a strong moral connection with her roots, and Clare decides to live her life as a “white” and lacks self-awareness. Throughout the novel, Irene consistently suppresses her feelings from people, especially Clare Kendry. Irene in fact once suspects Clare …show more content…
to be having an affair with her husband Brian. Irene manages to keep her true feeling about Clare concealed from her; in fact, she actually thinks of ways she can get rid of Clare. Clare and Irene started their friendship back in high school and reunited years later after Irene received a letter from Clare.
The letter from Clare was an expression to Irene about how lonely she was. Clare expresses to Irene that she feels detached from her own people. Clare insists that Irene comes to visit her to reconnect after years being apart. As the book progresses, there comes a time where Clare and Irene have met for tea accompanied by a friend of Clare’s, Gertrude. This part of the novel is the first time that we experience Irene’s beliefs and strong connection with her African American roots. During a conversation between Irene and Gertrude, Irene thinks to herself “Great Goodness! Two of them” (Larsen33). This thought of Irene’s is an example of how Irene suppresses her feelings. Instead of telling Gertrude how she felt about her marrying a white man, she kept it to herself. Larsen goes on to write “For Gertrude too had married a white man, though it couldn’t be truthfully said that she was “passing.” Her husband—what was his name?—had been in school with her and had been quite well aware, as had his family and most of his friends, that she was a Negro” (Larsen33). This shows Irene being judgmental to Gertrude for deciding to “pass” and marrying a white man instead of staying true to her African American roots. The plot of this novel takes place in the 1920’s, when there was discussions and decisions to …show more content…
cross racial boundaries and live life as another race. Another instance in which we can see Irene suppressing her true feeling was at the Drayton. Larsen writes “And gradually there rose in Irene a small inner disturbance, odious and hatefully familiar. She laughed softly, but her eyes flashed” (Larsen16). Larsen then goes on to say “Nevertheless, Irene felt, in turn, anger, scorn and fear slide over her. It wasn’t that she was ashamed of being a Negro,… it was the idea of being ejected from any place, even in the polite and tactful way in which the Drayton would probably do it, that disturbed her”(Larsen16). In this part of the novel, again Irene keeps her slight annoyance and anger to herself and smiles instead. She then goes on to simply feel disturbed by how she is treated at the Drayton, instead deciding to pass as white. Throughout the Novel, Irene is also given the ability to pass but decides only to do so in certain instances in which it is called for and needed. If Irene passes, she believes that she will be living her life as a lie or even completely disowning herself, her people and her past. Clare lacks self-awareness throughout the novel and does not take clear signs well or social cues.
When Irene and Clare are out of tea, Irene attempts several time to leave and Clare insist in her presence in staying. Irene says “I must go Clare” (Larsen22). Clare quickly responds “Please, not so soon”, begging her not to leave. Not only did Clare not take this sign as Irene wanting to go, she then offered Irene to join her for dinner. Clare says “Come tomorrow instead, to tea, then you’ll see Mergery— she’s just ten—and jack too, maybe, if he hasn’t got an appointment of something” (Larsen23). Irene then goes on to give an uneasy laugh and said hastily “I’m afraid I can’t, Clare. I’m filled up. Dinner and bridge. I’m so sorry” (Larsen23). These events are perfect examples of how Clare lacks self-awareness and social cues given to her by Irene. Clare admits that she doesn’t have strong morals like Irene does. This leads her to actually pursue her life as a “white”. Larsen writes “But it’s true, ‘Rene. Can’t you realize that I’m not like you a big? Why, to get the things I want badly enough, I’d do anything, hurt anybody, and throw anything away. Really, ‘Rene, I’m not safe” (Larsen81). This is a perfect example of Clare admittedly stating that she will live her life as a white to get the things that she wants
badly. Irene is given the ability to pass but decides not to, to stand strong in her morals and beliefs. Clare on the other hand, only truly cares about what she has to do to get the things that she wants. This cause jealously and slight envy problems because Irene sees the life that Clare lives because she is “white” and knows that Clare is awarded that life by simply living her life as a lie. Irene and Clare each have a unique way of identifying with who they are as people and have different morals. Irene’s strong connection with her roots and ability to suppress her feelings along with Clare’s lack of awareness and life as a white, gives the reader a feeling of identity and belonging.
The Emancipation of the once enslaved African American was the first stepping stone to the America that we know of today. Emancipation did not, however automatically equate to equality, as many will read from the awe-inspiring novel Passing Strange written by the talented Martha Sandweiss. The book gives us, at first glance, a seemingly tall tale of love, deception, and social importance that color played into the lives of all Americans post-emancipation. The ambiguity that King, the protagonist, so elegantly played into his daily life is unraveled, allowing a backstage view of the very paradox that was Charles King’s life.
I think Tate’s further interpretation of Passing as a story of jealousy, intrigue, and obsession is also very accurate. There are race issues that are brought up, in instances such as Irene worrying about being discovered as a black woman while having tea in the Drayton Hotel, and the language and attitude Clare’s husband has towards black people in general. However, I believe that much of the story is rooted in class issues, also. Clare and her husband Brian are wealthy, they get to travel across Europe, and their
The work, the Souls of Black Folk explains the problem of color-line in the twentieth century. Examining the time following the civil war the author, W.E.B. Dubois, explains the African American experience of living behind the “veil”. To fully explain the experience of living behind the veil, he provides the reader with situations that a black race experiences in reconstruction. This allowed the readers to metaphorically step into the veil with him. He accomplishes this with the use of “songs of sorrow” with were at the beginning of each chapter, and with the use of anecdotes.
The award-winning book of poems, Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson, is an eye-opening story. Told in first person with memories from the author’s own life, it depicts the differences between South Carolina and New York City in the 1960s as understood by a child. The book begins in Ohio, but soon progresses to South Carolina where the author spends a considerable amount of her childhood. She and her older siblings, Hope and Odella (Dell), spend much of their pupilage with their grandparents and absorb the southern way of life before their mother (and new baby brother) whisk them away to New York, where there were more opportunities for people of color in the ‘60s. The conflict here is really more of an internal one, where Jacqueline struggles with the fact that it’s dangerous to be a part of the change, but she can’t subdue the fact that she wants to. She also wrestles with the issue of where she belongs, “The city is settling around me….(but) my eyes fill up with the missing of everything and everyone I’ve ever known” (Woodson 184). The conflict is never explicitly resolved, but the author makes it clear towards the end
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.
1) Double Consciousness- Double consciousness applies to how Clare Kendry views herself. She is trying to fit in to the white community by acting white and going along with her husband’s resentment of black people, but at the same time she wants to be a part of the black community again. He husband states “I don’t dislike them. I hate them. And so does Nig for all she is trying to turn into one” (page 69). This is possibly the best representation of Clare. She wants to be part of the black community, but she also acts like or really does hate that it is a part of her, which is why she has tried so hard to become white. She even at one point states “I do think that colored people- we- are too silly about things” (page 62) in reference to the fuss being made
The history of racial and class stratification in Los Angeles has created tension amongst and within groups of people. Southland, by Nina Revoyr, reveals how stratification influences a young Asian woman to abandon her past in order to try and fully integrate herself into society. The group divisions are presented as being personal divisions through the portrayal of a generational gap between the protagonist, Jackie, and her grandfather. Jackie speaks of her relationship with Rebecca explaining her reasons why she could never go for her. Jackie claims that “she looked Asian enough to turn Jackie off” (Revoyr, 2003, p. 105). Unlike her grandfather who had a good sense of where he came from and embraced it, Jackie rejected her racial background completely. Jackie has been detached from her past and ethnicity. This is why she could never be with Rebecca, Jackie thought of her as a “mirror she didn’t want to look into”. Rebecca was everything Jackie was tr...
Clare longs to be part of the black community again and throughout the book tries to integrate herself back into it while remaining part of white society. Although her mother is black, Clare has managed to pass as a white woman and gain the privileges that being a person of white skin color attains in her society. However whenever Clare is amongst black people, she has a sense of freedom she does not feel when within the white community. She feels a sense of community with them and feels integrated rather than isolated. When Clare visits Irene she mentions, “For I am lonely, so lonely… cannot help to be with you again, as I have never longed for anything before; you can’t know how in this pale life of mine I am all the time seeing the bright pictures of that other that I o...
The main character is completely alienated from the world around him. He is a black man living in a white world, a man who was born in the South but is now living in the North, and his only form of companionship is his dying wife, Laura, whom he is desperate to save. He is unable to work since he has no birth certificate—no official identity. Without a job he is unable to make his mark in the world, and if his wife dies, not only would he lose his lover but also any evidence that he ever existed. As the story progresses he loses his own awareness of his identity—“somehow he had forgotten his own name.” The author emphasizes the main character’s mistreatment in life by white society during a vivid recollection of an event in his childhood when he was chased by a train filled with “white people laughing as he ran screaming,” a hallucination which was triggered by his exploration of the “old scars” on his body. This connection between alienation and oppression highlight Ellison’s central idea.
In this memoir, the meaning of language is intertwined with the search for self-identity. This book was focused on an experience of perusing her own heritage by the use of DNA and genomics. In Raquel’s instance, or Rachael as her friends refer to her as, language has become a force of conflict and discrimination. Raquel wants to fit in with her peers and uses language as a means to relate. “Rachael, if you call me nigga one more time, I’m going to have to fuck you up” (pg. 71). It is this conversation that causes racial tension between Raquel and her friends. She tries to explain that they are all women of color, regardless of how much darker their skin is than hers. Her friends can’t seem to understand why she likes all that “black shit” (pg. 71) referring to her like of hip hop music. Another issue regarding culture and ethnicity occurs with Raquel’s encounter with Simon, who uses discriminatory comments as a joke. Raquel, who finds great offense to it, takes this use of vulgar language personally. The role of language within this novel displays the hardships and struggles of growing up as an immigrant adolescent in the United States. It emphasizes the racial discrimination and adaptation aspect as well. However, despite all of the hatred and uncertainty Raquel possesses, she begins to develop resilience,
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 ...
Survival should have been the priority of the chaotic world that Lauren lives in; however, gender, race, and class persist. In this book Butler shows that, although gender, race, and class insist, people in every class, race, or gender have to leave the tradition behind and not only prioritize their safety but to begin moving the world back toward equality. This story is told based on Lauren, the narrator’s point of view from her diary where she explains how society has broken in every aspect and how she tries to survive. In the story, Lauren, the hyper-empathy narrator, is an African-American preacher’s daughter, who has her own beliefs and philosophy about God and life.
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.
It is not until Celie is an adult that she finally feels content with her life and understands her capacity to be a completely autonomous woman. The concept of racial and gender equality has expanded greatly throughout the twentieth century, both in society and in literature. These changes influence Walker's writing, allowing her to create a novel that chronicles the development of a discriminated black woman. Her main character, Celie, progresses from oppression to self-sufficiency, thereby symbolizing the racial and gender advancements our country has achieved.