...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...
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...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...
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...their family complex as a child can make or break them, and this is visible in the case of Clare Kendry of “Passing, as her past experiences greatly influenced her future. Her double in the novel, Irene Redfield, has multiple qualities that lead her to make the decisions she chooses. In Nella Larsen’s novel, the audience...
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