Analysis of Passing by Nella Larsen - Essay Example

 “Passing” by Nella Larsen “Passing” is a marvelous piece of work by Nella Larsen who has successfully encapsulated the notion of the African-American existence by bringing the characters to life. It is a mulatto’s tragic plight who passes for white in a high society. Depicting the racial conflict in the midst of psychological ambiguity, jealousy and stratagem, the novel narrates the story of a beautiful girl who is light-skinned which starts of as a melodramatic tale but ends as an “enduring work of art” (Tate 142).

The novel was published in 1929 and thus sketches the racial issues that the African-American women of 1920s had to face. “Passing” is a part of Harlem Renaissance which captures repressed sexuality of a young woman. The pretention of the light-skinned African-Americans to gain all the opportunities otherwise denied to them is what gives the novel its central theme of racism and conflict between the lives of Irene, Gertrude and Clare. The novel begins with a leg on each side of the two cultures.

Larsen focuses more on Irene’s perspective although she does not condone either Gertrude’s or Clare’s choice of life. Irene seems to be looking at the “passing” in an altogether new light. She suffers from a fear of losing her own heritage by being expelled from her “passing” when she sees Clare who has abandoned all her contacts. “It wasn’t that she was ashamed of being a Negro, or even of having it declared. 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.

” (Larsen 179). In response to this fear Irene chooses to avoid Clare. In the modern times, places no longer deny people on the basis of intermarriages and races. Times have greatly changed. But the world depicted by Larsen gives the reader a sense of awareness that they might be under an impression that the issue of racism has been resolved but in reality it may still exist in various pockets of white society where the media fails to reach out. Although the first half of the novel directly deals with Irene’s apprehensions towards Clare, the second half of the novel deals with her sexual repression.

This brings a twist in the tale. It seems that Larsen is trying to see a connection between racism and female sexual repression. Could there be a possibility that racial issues were different for women and men? Irene and her husband are not sexually satisfied. This is evident from the passage in the novel where she lectures Brian to condemn their boys to make inappropriate jokes. Brian responds to her in a carefree style regarding sex as a joke and nothing else important. Irene does not sleep in the same room as her husband’s and this indicates that there is a lack of communication.

It seems that the racial issue gave rise to complication within the black community. Clare’s affair with Brian and her movement in the high society does bring Irene in pressure but she is also naturally relieved to know of Clare’s demise towards the end of the novel. While Gertrude’s life seems rather peaceful where her husband is fully aware of her black heritage and agrees to live with her, Clare’s spouse is on the opposite side of Irene’s. She seeks for excitement despite her inner fear that her husband might learn about her black history.

She finds the pleasure in the form of Irene’s involvement in the social world when she can engage with Brian as her mini-affair thus bringing Irene to confront awkward moments such as meeting Clare’s husband. Such is also the depiction of Walker’s art where she simultaneously displays the historical realism of slavery and romance faced by the African-Americans (Kara 2004). Clare’s reappearance in Irene’s life is a challenge to society’s notion of racial identity. “…I was determined to get away, to be a person and not a charity or a problem, or even a daughter of the indiscreet, Ham…” (Larsen 187).

Clare rejects her “black” side showing racism towards her own kind although she wants to blend with the black community after many years of pretention of being white. One can read the novel “Passing” as a novel toggling between feminism and racism because it is written by a female writer who herself experienced the “passing” outside of Harlem, NY. She saw the rest of the world segregated as black and white at the turn of the twentieth century raising a possibility that such kind of racism still exists today in new forms and new titles.

Works Cited Kara E. Walker et al. Art:21: Art in the Twenty-First Century. United States: Art. Web. 21, 2004. Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York: Penguin Classics, 2001. PrintTate, Claudia. "Nella Larsen's Passing: a Problem of Interpretation." Black American Literature Forum. 14.4 (1980): 142-146. Print.