Passing by Nella Larson captures the clash between the status quo and the weakening driving forces of change that young African-American women faced in the 1920’s. The novel introduces the dynamic of two pale-skinned African-American women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry who are childhood friends that are light enough to pass for white. Though Irene decided to live as a black woman, she’s only a part of the black community superficially as she practices white standards while living as a black woman. On the other hand, Clare chose to live as a white woman exclusively. Clare goes to extent of adjusting any behavior, appearance, and etc. to break any ties between her and black culture, but ultimately, she tries to find a way back into the black
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The appearance of all the mail seemed to be identical to one another, until she spotted one peculiarly “long envelop of thin Italian paper with its almost illegible scrawl seemed out of place and alien”. (3) Irene immediately aware of who the sender is, reminiscences about her trip to Chicago a couple years back. Through a flashback, on the top of the Drayton hotel Irene bumped into Clare Kendry, her childhood friend who Irene hasn’t seen for twelve years. After Clare’s father died, she was sent to go live with some relatives that nobody knew of until they showed up at the funeral and took Clare with them. As the two women try to fill each other in with all that has happened in the past twelve years, Irene learns that Clare has passed as a white woman exclusively, she goes to the extent of marrying a white man. Following her encounter with Clare, Irene tries to never see Clare again, but ultimately, she accepts an invitation to tea. Once Irene arrives, she discovers that Clare has also invited Gertrude, another childhood friend who has also married a white man, but he is aware of Gertrude’s true heritage. The trio are then interrupted by the arrival of John Bellew, Clare’s husband. John unaware that all three women are of mixed race, proceeds to make racist comments about
The appearance of all the mail seemed to be identical to one another, until she spotted one peculiarly “long envelop of thin Italian paper with its almost illegible scrawl seemed out of place and alien”. (3) Irene immediately aware of who the sender is, reminiscences about her trip to Chicago a couple years back. Through a flashback, on the top of the Drayton hotel Irene bumped into Clare Kendry, her childhood friend who Irene hasn’t seen for twelve years. After Clare’s father died, she was sent to go live with some relatives that nobody knew of until they showed up at the funeral and took Clare with them. As the two women try to fill each other in with all that has happened in the past twelve years, Irene learns that Clare has passed as a white woman exclusively, she goes to the extent of marrying a white man. Following her encounter with Clare, Irene tries to never see Clare again, but ultimately, she accepts an invitation to tea. Once Irene arrives, she discovers that Clare has also invited Gertrude, another childhood friend who has also married a white man, but he is aware of Gertrude’s true heritage. The trio are then interrupted by the arrival of John Bellew, Clare’s husband. John unaware that all three women are of mixed race, proceeds to make racist comments about