True Identity In Passing By Nella Larsen And The Bluest Eye

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Internalized oppression causes individuals to question what their true identity as well as the identity society makes for them. As seen in the novels Passing by Nella Larsen and The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison, there are many scenarios in which characters doubt and raise suspicions about who they are. Within the novel Passing, a young African American woman named Irene revisits her hometown of Chicago during the Roaring Twenties. During her tenure within the city, she stumbles upon an old childhood acquaintance, Clare Kendry. Clare’s entire identity revolves around the identity of “passing,” which allows her to marry a wealthy yet racist white man: Jack Bellew. Unbeknown to Irene, this sets up the entire plot of the novel and makes Irene question …show more content…

Being African American means Irene is now in a situation that her race may expose her true identity. As a result, she begins denying the most viable option as to why another person may be staring at her, potentially analyzing her. In most scenarios throughout the novel, Larsen makes it clear that Irene is a confident character who has no shame of her African American heritage; yet, in this situation, Irene shows that she is vulnerable to the possibility of another person exposing her true identity when she does not want others to know about who she truly is. If not for the time in which she lives in, the 1920s, Irene should not have to worry about what color her skin is. However, Irene does live in this era in which having darker skin means people are bound to be more prejudicial towards others. Therefore, Irene must stick true with her gimmick of passing in order to protect herself from what may be a potential bigot. In contrast, is Pauline from the novel The Bluest Eye. Unlike Irene, Pauline is insecure about her identity. As she lives the majority of her younger years in the South, she picks up a Southern accent along with Southern dialect. Thus, people in Ohio, especially women, are keen to judge her because of her uniqueness. This causes lots of insecurity for Pauline as she struggles to fit it with those surrounding

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