Passing

Leslie M. Konen

Passing and Human Relationships

A huge amount of literature was created exclusively for African Americans during Larsen's time. For the first time, African Americans were being told that it was okay to be proud of who they were. This new knowledge and self-awareness was important in many works of literature, but a number of writers began exploring the darker side of this group with literature that concentrated on the pessimistic aspects of race relations in America. Nella Larsen's novel, Passing, focuses on this idea with the story of Clare, a tragic mulatto who "passes" as a white person. Not only is Passing representative of the dilemma of the tragic mulatto, it is also a novel that explores the difficulties of human relationships.

Clare Kendry's life is a great example of the difficulty of the tragic mulatto. In Passing, Clare seems to have and urge to go back to the African American world she left. Clare tells her friend Irene Redfield that "she 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" (Larsen 145). She also realizes a great deal how she wants to see African Americans, "to be with them again, to talk with them, to hear them laugh" (Larsen 200). Even though Irene feels that there is "nothing sacrificial in Clare's idea of life, no allegiance beyond her own immediate desire," (Larsen 144) it is obvious that Clare's wish to return to her African American race is sincere, even if the reasons seem unfair.

Irene believes Clare to be "selfish, cold and hard" (Larsen 144). Irene also feels that Clare does not have "even the slightest artistic or sociological interest in the race that some members of other races displayed. [She] cared nothing of the race, she only belonged to it" (Larsen 182). While there may be a little truth to this report, it does not lessen Clare's own pain at having to deny her African American legacy, and her longing to return to it. Irene isn't being fair to Clare. She is not being the true friend that Clare needs. Irene represents a piece of society who feel that people who pass must have a ethically satisfactory reason to return to their African American roots such as a want to rebel against a white humanity that has forced them into the role of a white person. In my opinion, Clare's desire to return to her own race on her own terms demonstrates her independence in the face of a conventional tragic mulatto, no matter what her 'friend' Irene thinks. Clare may not be the classic tragic mulatto, but her actions confirm that she belongs in this group of literary heroines.

Clare Kendry passes in order to secure a more steady life. Her desire to do this begins when she is young, after her African American father dies and she is left with her white aunts. Clare begins to desire more than what she has as an African American. In order to get what she craves Clare marries a white man, John Bellew, under the deception that she is white. Clare is then required to rebuff everything about her girlhood, family, her language, folk background, and the whole long line of people that have gone ahead of her. She understands that this is the single way she can get the middle-class permanence she desires. Passing, for Clare, it seems, means to lose one's soul. The reality that she has to deny her identity in order to feel protected ultimately leads to her recognition that her life has become a lie. Clare tells Irene that she "nearly died of terror the whole nine months before Margery (her daughter) was born for fear that she might be dark" (Larsen 168). Her husband nicknamed her "Nig," because she gets darker each day. To me, this seems so impersonal. John needs to be more supportive of Clare and his baby, no matter what. Even though Clare's wish to return to the African American society externally seemed only unusual, secretly, Irene begins to see "something groping, and hopeless, and yet so absolutely determined" inside this woman (Larsen 200). Clare will stop at nothing to leave the life she once desired in order to return to the African American society. Clare begins to recognize that her need to return to her African American birthright surpasses any catastrophe it may cause. In order to "get the things she wants badly enough, she'd do anything, hurt anybody, throw anything away" (Larsen 210). In my opinion, Clare's ultimate "loss of soul" is realized in the reality that she is ready to desert her family, including her daughter, in order to regain her racial identity. This, not her ultimate death, becomes Clare's final tragedy. She loses something of her own soul living in the humanity of white men.

Clare feels that civilization forces her to desert her family merely because part of her is African American. The fact that Clare pretends to be white in order to secure a reasonably steady life is critical to understanding the incentives for people who 'pass'. Clare also passes because it allows her to marry a man of wealth. Because she, similar to most other black women of the 1920's, if she accomplished any middle-class status, did it by good worth of a man's existence in her life by virtue of his class. Clare tells Irene "money's awfully nice to have. In fact all things considered...it's even worth the price" (Larsen 160) of passing. Clare's inspiration for passing does not mean that she feels that the African American race is below her. Instead, she realizes that passing permits her to escape the poverty she faces as an African American. Clare's motive for entering the white population is to gain financial viability, which John Bellew can grant for her.

Irene can pass if she desires, but her marriage to a highly regarded African American doctor already protects her status in the middle-class black culture. She does not have to cover her true individuality because she has already achieved the same kind of social rank that Clare greatly desires. Irene does sporadically pass, more apparently out of coincidence. Her feelings of being exposed in the Drayton, passing as a white woman, demonstrate her conflict. She does not desire to be shamed and asked to leave because of her black heritage, but on the other hand, she does not want to pass to permit approval there. Irene's passing is deceitful because she considers it tolerable for herself to do it, but is frustrated in Clare for using the same method. Irene does not totally pass into the white society as Clare does, but her readiness