Introduction
In the novel Passing Larsen depicts problems of racial identity and racial inequalities affected American society during 1920s-1930s. The major problem that confronted African-Americans was no longer how to deal with prejudice but how to achieve racial identity; the major task of African-American writers was not to expose racial injustice but to uncover, describe, and possibly explain the life of African-Americans.
Johnson also pioneered the use of urban local color in African-American literature. Before the 1920s most writers avoided detailed and realistic descriptions of the colorful life of lower-class urban African-Americans because they believed that depicting the squalor and vice of ghetto neighborhoods would only reinforce negative racial stereotypes. They usually described African-Americans in middle-class settings and emphasized the similarities between white and African-American society. The novel uses the theme “passing” as a symbol of self-search and understanding of racial and personal uniqueness.
Main body
In the novel, the main character, Clare Kendry, defines herself in terms of her family; she is concerned solely with the welfare of her children and the degree to which her husband’s infidelity threatens her security. She has no professional or intellectual ambition; major decisions in her life center around questions like what dress to wear. Her life is defined by her husband’s economic, social, and professional status; she confines her efforts to control her life to manipulating her husband. To achieve happiness and security she “has only to direct and guide her man, to keep him going in the right direction” (65). This approach, of course, fails. When a threat to her security materializes, she is virtually paralyzed, unable to assert herself or take action until the last scene of the novel.
The image of women that Larsen projected is a depressing one. Clare and Irene became trapped in poverty, not because they are African-Americans, but because they are women. Even the religion that ultimately ensnared them is a manifestation of “feminine” characteristics. Faith is irrational. Both women loose control over their lives and foundered in a psychological dilemma. Nella Larsen epitomizes the self-confident, modern, sophisticated woman. Larsen focused this novel on the efforts of a young middle-class African-Americans woman to find happiness and fulfillment.
Using the theme of ‘passing” Larsen, on the other hand, projected very negative images of women who were essentially hopeless and powerless to control their circumstances or their destinies. In the two novels that she wrote in rapid succession, Irene and Clare assume responsibility for their lives are conspicuously absent. Through the character of Clare Larsen depicts that mere independence, is not enough for her. Her quest for happiness and meaning takes her to marriage and across the color line. There she encounters a second role model: the “modern” woman who embraces feminism. Clare was afraid of “apparent danger of discovery, even Irene ceased to be perturbed about the possibility of Clare’s husband’s stumbling on her racial identity” (80 e only partially achieves her definition of a fulfilling life. She remains prim and proper, virtually untouched by Harlem’s bohemian element.
All her life, Irene tries to prevent her boys from discovering the “horrible” reality of racial oppression in America. Irene enrolls children in private school, worries that Brian Junior might be learning about sex from his older classmates, refuses to discuss issues that expose white animosity toward African-American people in the presence of the boys, and forbids her husband “to talk to them about the race problem.” Irene states that “their childhood to be happy and as free from the knowledge of such things as it can be” (263). Having enjoyed a childhood in the Westovers’ South Side Chicago home, Irene tries to accept white values and beliefs, traditions and ideals. She hopes that she can copy this style of life for her own children. These actions and behavior helps Irene seems by all people to be a white woman. Thus, Irene cannot appreciate what it is like to experience the interminable acts of prejudice and discrimination put against African-American population solely because of their race. Larsen portrays that Irene is accustomed to being treated in public as if she belonged to another race. Irene’s effort to repel the interruption of the killing inherent in a racially diverse society into the confines of her family is yet another example of Irene’s attempts to create her own reality and exist in her own artificial universe.
Larsen depicts contrasting characters and actions of two African-American women. While Irene seeks to keep her children ignorant of the animosity toward African-American people, Brian is equally insistent that the boys be familiarized with the dismal condition of American race relations: “If, as you’re so determined, they’ve got to live in this damned country, they’d better find out what sort of thing they’re up against as soon as possible. The earlier they learn it, the better prepared they’ll be” (263). Brian’s contempt for his wife’s position becomes clear as she stubbornly continues to assert her fundamental point— she wants the boys to be happy, to enjoy their peaceful fantasy world for as long as she is reasonably able to maintain its inviolability. In complete disbelief, Brian resorts to a personal insult: “I can’t understand how anybody as intelligent as you like to think you are can show evidences of such stupidity” (264). Larsen accepts his perspective over that of her stressed heroine, Clare who is depicted throughout the narrative as having inadequate approach to motherhood.
Conclusion
In sum, using the contrasting characters of Clare and Irene Larsen vividly portrays that a person cannot escape her racial roots and identity. “Passing” of both characters is a painful and distressing event in their life. Irene’s passing occurs when she adopts and accepts white values while Clare’s passing occurs when she assumes white identity.
References
Larsen, N. Passing. Penguin Books, 2003.