Double-consciousness is a theme that has followed many African American authors; in Passing Irene who is a strong advocate for blacks and black culture for the first time experiences the overweight burdens of race rather than the good that comes from being black. “Irene Redfield wished, for the first time in her life, that she has not been born a Negro. For the first time she suffered and rebelled because she was unable to disregard the burden of race” (Larsen 592). Double consciousness causes many to be in a state of ambivalence, one which Childs mentions is a common characteristic of modernism. Within the novel Irene addresses passing in their community with Brian, she says there is an ambivalent feeling about passing they despise it but
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The most prominent example of this is Irene wanting to protect Clare, by not letting John her husband discover Clare’s actual race even though Irene herself disapproves of it and suspects Clare to be having an affair with her husband. Irene feels torn between preserving her race or herself. Double consciousness relates the modernist literature because it provides the multiple perspectives as well reveal the uncertainty within one’s race as a whole and individuality. Childs asserts that in modernism there is often a strong sense of ambiguity, which is prominent in various areas of the novel Passing especially in the brunch with Gertrude, Clare, and Irene. It was often perceived by whites that there is one single African American experience, in the scene with the three black women it is seen how each of their lives completely differ. Maria Balshaw, mentions in that Passing uses the image of white supremacy as power to illustrate the diverging identities and aspirations (321). Irene …show more content…
With her novel Passing it provided views of the contanstly changing lifestyles of passing women and other African americans . The uncertainity and questioning that is a common theme within the novel follows to until the ending. For instance there is no answer to Irene’s speculation of her husband’s affair with Clare and there is no answer to who is responsible for the death of Clare in the ending of the novel. Modernism does not only illustrate ambivalence within the characters but within the readers as well. Modernism was rapid change within literature because it brought about differing lifestyles that were not common within the predecessor,
The most prominent example of this is Irene wanting to protect Clare, by not letting John her husband discover Clare’s actual race even though Irene herself disapproves of it and suspects Clare to be having an affair with her husband. Irene feels torn between preserving her race or herself. Double consciousness relates the modernist literature because it provides the multiple perspectives as well reveal the uncertainty within one’s race as a whole and individuality. Childs asserts that in modernism there is often a strong sense of ambiguity, which is prominent in various areas of the novel Passing especially in the brunch with Gertrude, Clare, and Irene. It was often perceived by whites that there is one single African American experience, in the scene with the three black women it is seen how each of their lives completely differ. Maria Balshaw, mentions in that Passing uses the image of white supremacy as power to illustrate the diverging identities and aspirations (321). Irene …show more content…
With her novel Passing it provided views of the contanstly changing lifestyles of passing women and other African americans . The uncertainity and questioning that is a common theme within the novel follows to until the ending. For instance there is no answer to Irene’s speculation of her husband’s affair with Clare and there is no answer to who is responsible for the death of Clare in the ending of the novel. Modernism does not only illustrate ambivalence within the characters but within the readers as well. Modernism was rapid change within literature because it brought about differing lifestyles that were not common within the predecessor,