Introduction to Larsen’s Passing
A common word passing assumed significance during the period of migration of the b–ck from the rural south to the northern and midwestern urban areas specifically mentioned as a theme in Larsen’s Passing. Passing means “fair complexioned Negroes passing as whites” (Gatewood 180). There is permanent passing that means to lose identity and the b–ck people cut off their roots while non-permanent passing means to stay in touch with the b–ck community and relatives (180).
A noted b–ck poet Langstone Hughes has also expressed his thoughts about the phenomenon of passing in his poem of the same title “Passing” as its last lines go thus;
“the ones who’ve crossed the line
to live downtown
miss you,
Harlem of the bitter dream
since their dream has
come true.” (Lines 11-16).
Cases and Nella Larson’s Passing
Referring to Chicago Defenders, Hobbs has also commented on the girls who have crossed the lines (02). She has noted a girl who went to Los Angeles and could not come even on the death of her father, losing her identity (04). She further argues that those days were risky and that it seems a stupid and foolish act but most of the girls and mixed- racial people decided to change their identities (04). There is a case of Homer Plessy known as Plessy v. Ferguson case of 1896 in which Plessey won the case and his case did fall in the category of violation of race (12). Although it seems that Nella Larson has depicted the Rhinelander Case as some of the critics have suggested similarities, her heroin, Clare Kendry has the courage to pass, cross boundaries and still do not lose her identity. The same has been presented in Larsen’s Passing.
Representation of the Idea of Passing
Presentation of the idea of passing in Larsen’s Passinghas a double notion. It centers on personal and racial identity (Henderson 17)
- Personal Identity
Clare Kendry has lost her personal identity by breaking up with her family in the story of Larsen’s Passing. When Clare Kednry meets Irene she narrates her tale and how she marries John after telling about her white aunts who were prejudicial about race and even passing. She tells it how on personal level she has lost her identity deliberately. She says about aunts;
“They forbade me to mention Negroes to the neighbours, or even to mention the south side. You may be sure that I didn’t. I’ll bet they were good and sorry afterwards” (Larson 67).
- Social Identity
On the social level, Clare Kendry, the girl in Larsen’s Passing, has hoodwinked John when she meets Irene and Gertrude. However, on social level, she even tries to hoodwink her own community though she meets her negro friends. When her husband calls her ‘nig’, she tells him;
“Jack dear, I’m sure ’Rene doesn’t care to hear all about your pet aversions. Nor Gertrude either. Maybe they read the papers too, you know” (Larson 81).
Representation of the Time in Larsen’s Passing
When Larson wrote Passing, those were the modern times in literature as well as culture. Henderson says that she has presented biracial woman as “the site of contradiction and negotiation, transgression and conformity, tradition and modernity” (8).
- Clare Kendry: A Modern Biracial Woman in Larsen’s Passing
Clare Kednry as her modern character of passing presents contradiction and negotiation. She has contradicted her own race and her own identity by marrying John Bellew. She, with her acts, has caused ambiguity and confusion in Irene, the protagonist of the novel.
“Irene could only shrug her shoulders. Her reason partly agreed, her instinct wholly rebelled. And she could not say why” (Larson 69).
Clare is shown as contradicting not only her personal but also social identity. She is also shown constantly negotiating it with herself as well as with the characters around her. She is showing John that she is white but to her friends that she is one of them.
“I do think that coloured people—we—are too silly about some things. After all, the thing’s not important to Irene or hundreds of others” (Larson 77).
She has the courage to transgress as she has already noted the words of her father who told her that “Everything must be paid for” (Larson 77).
She is well are of the risk that she has taken and knows the consequences of transgression. Therefore, she seems to be very careful as Larson says, “Clare began to talk, steering carefully away from anything that might lead towards race or other thorny subjects” (78).
- Modern Woman’s Dilemma About Conformity and Tradition in Larsen’s Passing
The case of Clare Kendry is highly different in terms of conformity as well as tradition. She does not conform to the race codes and crosses boundaries. She does not stick to traditions. Even in the other space, she plays hide and seek and often jumps the fence to enjoy both sides.
Henderson says, “her story fails to conform to the convention of the tragic mulatta who typically experiences guilt and remorse resulting from racial ‘desertion” (20).
Irene’s reaction to this non conformity of Clare speaks volume about her ability to vacillate between two spaces. She says that Clare Kendry only belongs to a race but care nothing. Even Irene becomes double minded about it as she says;
“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. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it” (Larson 95).
- Confusion of Modernism in Larsen’s Passing
Henderson is of the view that there is clear modern sense of dislocation and ambiguity (08). This ambiguity exists in both of the characters, Irene as well as Clare. In Irene, this ambiguity is about her feelings toward Clare as she cannot and did not refuse meeting her. In the case of Clare, she is confused and ambiguous in her articulations about choosing one or the other race as she says;
“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 once thought I was glad to be free of….It’s like an ache, a pain that never ceases” (52).
On the other hand, Larson’s narrator tells about Irene;
- She always steps on the danger
- She is ambiguous about decision to sit on the one side of the fence
- She does not feel any arms “or feeling of outrage on the part of others” (50).
These major features of the character of Clare Kendry tells about her as an African American modern woman that Larson has depicted her novel Passing.
Conclusion
Larsen’s Passing reflects the time and idea in which the author has lived in the following ways.
- It presents the historical fictionalization of passing, a phenomenon of miscegenated generation of b–ck into white.
- It presents the dilemma of a girl who passes successfully but hides it and also wants to stay in contact with her family and race.
- The novel presents confused characters of Clare Kendry who has passed and Irene who has not.
Works Cited
- Gatewood, Willard B. Aristocrats of color: The b–ck elite, 1880–1920. University of Arkansas Press, 2000.
- Henderson, Mae G. “Critical Foreword” from Passing by Nella Larson, New York: Modern Library, 2009.
- Hughes, Langstone. “Passing.” SS2. n. d. http://swc2.hccs.edu/kindle/hughespassing.pdf. Accessed 04 May. 2019.
- Larson, Nella. Passing. New York: The Modern Library, 2009.
- Thaggert, Miriam. “Racial Etiquette: Nella Larsen’s ‘Passing and the Rhinelander Case.’” Meridians, vol. 5, no. 2, 2005, pp. 1–29. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40338664.