...Answer - Chosen by Voters Nella Larsen's second novel Passing on the other hand concentrates on the issue of skin color. As we can see from our own experiences, everyone is not the same shade. Many people of color were affected by this both dark- and light-skinned especially during Nella Larsen's era. While the light-skinned black people were dominating the black establishments, the dark-skinned black people were feeling rejection from their own kind. Passing addresses this issue through the character of Clare Kendry who was also an atrractive light skin fine haired women who manages to escape poverty by passing for being a white women. She marries a wealthy white man who also believes that she is white as well. Her journey across the color line is completely sucessful until she reunites with her old friend Irene. Irene Redfield is married to an attractive and sucessful black physician who Clare finds herself attracted to and he to her, so Clare decides to pursue him. Irene was aware of Clare's threat to her marriage and arranges for Clare's disappearence. Clare falls to her death from an open window just before her husband is about to confront her with his discovery of her black roots. Passing can be related more to Nella Larsen's actual life; she was also a light-skinned women who dominated the black intellectual etablishments and because of her color could have and may have at some points in her life passed for a white woman. I don't think Nella Larsen wanted to cease being...
Words: 855 - Pages: 4
...A person's sense of identity is crucial in their well-being, shaping their behavior and their overall content state of life. Nella Larsen’s Passing clearly depicts the main character, Irene’s, struggle with her identity. Thereby, Irene continually allows Clare Kendry, a girl from her past, to affect her, despite the several occasions when Irene claimed she was finished with Clare Kendry. Irene Redfield relies on Clare Kendry to maintain her sense of her own identity because she used Clare as a foundation. If Clare Kendry no longer continues to pass as a white woman, she will be just like Irene, potentially causing her to lose everything important to her. These important factors include her family and her social status. Further proving, Irene Redfield is an incredibly unstable character, for her own sense of sanity, she needs Clare Kendry to continue to pass to help her maintain her own sense of identity. Before Clare and Irene reunite at the Drayton, they had a civil relationship during their childhoods before Clare drifted apart from her old community after her father’s passing. After lunch, Clare becomes desperate to see Irene again and continues to assert her presence in not only Irene’s life, but her family, and her social life. Clare’s authors a letter to Irene at the beginning of the novel, shortly after their...
Words: 1113 - Pages: 5
...and unstable lifestyles. Exploring the life of Helga Crane in Nella Larson’s Quicksand and Clare Kendry in Larson’s Passing illustrates the issues the two protagonists face when the tone of their skin became a matter of focus and the results their decisions create. Both novels most likely are Nella Larson’s personal quest in a life of searching for acceptance. As an African American novelist during the Harlem Renaissance, Nella Larsen completed these two novels along with a few short stories. It is apparent that her stories dramatize situations Larsen faced during her actual lifetime. Her father, Peter Walker, was a West Indian man who died when Larsen was a young girl. Her mother, Marie Hanson Walker went on to marry a white man, Peter Larsen, which eventually began some internal racial issues for Nella. Nella struggled finding that sense of comfort and acceptance from her family and peers. Being raised in a lower- middle class white household, she felt like a black child that did not belong. Her newfound white family did not accept her and her black relatives also failed to accept her as they enrolled the young, future novelist into Fisk University to broaden her education and send her far away from them as well (Mainwright). Larsen spent her entire life with a sensation that there was more out there for her, resulting in her moving place to place to find stability and happiness. At the age of sixteen Nella traveled to Denmark to spend time with her mother’s family. After...
Words: 7634 - Pages: 31
...In Passing by Nella Larsen , the author’s overall purpose is to discuss. Jealousy ,Betrayal , and Envy. Ultimately she asserts that when someone is jealous of another person they envy what others have which leads to hatred and betrayal in their relationship.She does this by using Conflict ,Characterization , and Irony. She does this while discussing John knowing Clare was Black, and Irene pushing Clare out the window . Irene jealous of Clare talking to Brian and flirting with a bunch of guys including Brian during the Christmas party builds the theme of Jealousy. Irene says , " It was like a live thing pressing against her. In a quick furtive glance she saw Clare clinging to Brian's other arm. She was looking at him with that provocative...
Words: 289 - Pages: 2
...their natural skin tones and bodies to fit into this unrealistic perception of beauty. Some women have resulted to the usage of plastic surgery and skin bleaching application to appear more European in terms of image. It has also been documented in history that having lighter skin has given African American women the ability to pass as being Caucasian in order to be accepted in society; by means in securing an education, employment and better living conditions. In Nella Larsen novella, “Passing” she exemplifies this point as being true but having devastating results. “It’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. Why shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it” (42). For Larsen, the context of race and identity become problematic for her main characters Irene and Clare, both characters pass because they cannot identify with their dual cultures and outward appearances in society. The ability to pass gives Larsen’s characters to the ability to manipulate the societal perception of beauty and race. “The detrimental effect of these European beauty standards on black women is a societal issue that is often...
Words: 1008 - Pages: 5
...Zora Neale Hurston, part artist/author and part social scientist her prowess for anthropological research help preserve some of the African-American cultural traditions and Folklife especially those that stemmed from Haiti and the Caribbean Islands (you can check out some of the Haitian folk songs here https://www.floridamemory.com/audio/hurston.php). One of her strengths was in her incorporation of her research into her writing; the bridge of information can be seen in Mules and Men which captures an account of her own research adventures but also African-American Folklore and life in Florida and New Orleans. If one could consider Hurston having any weaknesses it would most likely be her political conservatism, her biggest gaff being on...
Words: 360 - Pages: 2
...You Ken Tan Christopher Hennessy LI 208 U.S. Multicultural Literature 26 Feb 2013 Passing: An Analysis and Close reading Nella Larsen’s Passing is a story about the tragedy of an African American woman, Clare Kendry, who tried to “pass” in the white American community. However, while she passes as white, she constantly seeks comfort from her friend Irene Redfield who is a representation of the African American community. Gradually, Clare has become the double image of Irene, due to the similarities of their ethnicity and the contrasting lives they lead. At the end of the story, Clare’s death is a result of the extreme burden on Irene’s shoulder due to the presence of Clare in her life. The death of Clare is very much Irene’s responsibility based upon her suspicious acts at the end of the story. The ending of Passing, and of the life of Clare Kendry, begins on the sixth floor of an apartment complex at a party in the home of Felise and Dave Freeland. During the party, Irene says that, “It seems dreadfully warm in here. Mind if I open this window?” (Larsen 110) However, when Irene opens the window, “It had stopped snowing some two or three hours back” (Larsen 110). This means that the weather is still rather cold and despite the freezing temperature, Irene still sits beside the window. Another reason why Irene would want to open the window is because she wants to smoke her cigar. She politely uses the warm temperature in the room as her excuse to open the window. Although...
Words: 1292 - Pages: 6
...As the readers know, Nella Larsen’s Passing took an abrupt ending. It left the audience in an array and struggling to figure out the “5-W’s”. Who pushed Clare or who let her jump? What lead to the peak of this tragedy? Did this happen when Irene blacked out? How did this happen? However, obvious reasons reveal the why of this tragedy. From my interpretation and evaluation, I have come to the conclusion that Irene pushed Clare out of the window. Irene despised that Clare was successful in passing, had such a dominating influence on her, and Irene believed she committed adultery with her husband. All of which gives motive for Irene to murder Clare. Clare was determined to have a progressive life as a white woman. She was the definition of a successful Negro who thrived through passing. Unlike Irene, Clare was married to a white man and disguised herself as white their entire marriage. She was able to pass as white with and without her husband. As for Irene, she married a Negro man, and was not fortunate to experience passing with her husband. Irene also had black sons, and had to live with the constant fact that her children would endure discrimination because of their skin color. Not only was Irene jealous of Clare’s...
Words: 1123 - Pages: 5
...The formation of self-identity is a process each of us must go through on our journey to adulthood. The development of a system by which to lead our adult lives is difficult for all children, but especially for African American children. In addition to defining their personal character, they must define themselves in terms of their culture and nationality – African American and American. One of the ways in which black children create their self-identity is through the illustrations they see in the literature they are exposed to. We look to African American children’s books to help promote self-esteem, cultural identity, and pride for African American children. As books are read to them, children concentrate on the images, and become subject to the impressions these images create. Children’s books that are authentic to African American culture, physicality and intelligence are few and far between. With consideration to our theme, “Black Literary Contemplations on Thomas Jefferson and Western Enlightenment Ideologies of Race and Humanity” and Thomas Jefferson’s Query XIV, it is my belief that the images in children’s literature are important to development of self- identity and esteem in African American children. In Query XIV, in his comparison of whites and blacks, Thomas Jefferson commented on the beauty of whites and blacks, and critiqued blacks because of their “immovable veil of black” and lack of flowing hair. He then stated that black men favored white women over black...
Words: 1523 - Pages: 7
...It is evident today that the black man and woman alike have achieved what seemed an impossible feat; a pipe dream just about one hundred and fifty years ago during the Reconstruction Period. Today for example, the black man can speak on the national television, own his own business, attend a predominantly white school and even publicly voice his displeasure without getting persecuted. To sum it up, the kind of beastly racism that involved lynching, public vitriol, and aggression against blacks has drastically changed into a more covert one. The opening remarks in Brent Campney’s article in the magazine, Western Historical Quarterly, hint at the task that the black community still had in their quest for dignity even after the civil war. In the introductory remarks of the article, the author laments, “In the aftermath of the war, however, white Kansas made a mockery of the Union’s optimism. Unleashing a campaign of violence aimed at enforcing their supremacy over blacks in the young state’’ (Campney 172). We find that the black community was faced with an uphill task in their quest for equality to their white counterparts even after the civil war. Kansas making a mockery of thee Union means that as per the wish of the Union that blacks would be free and appreciated after they helped the Union crush the Confederacy, the white community in Kansas turned against them with racially instigated violence aimed at them. The Union had thus made an assumption when they...
Words: 1560 - Pages: 7
