The Literary Analysis Of Nella Larsen's Passing

The ending of Nella Larsen’s Passing leaves us with a big mystery on our hands. That mystery is formed in the question, “Who killed Clare Kendry?”. The novel chooses to leave us with a rather ambiguous ending that never outright answers the question. With in-depth psychological and textual analysis, the answer can be found. This analysis will prove that the protagonist Irene Redfield killed Clare Kendy. Passing takes place from Irene Redfield’s perspective. The novel may not have been written with a first-person point of view, but the perspective is hers. The novel focus on her thoughts, life, memories, interactions, and troubles with her identity. There is no shift from this perspective either. That furthers the fact that this novel is clearly about her. With that in mind Irene’s perspective proves to be a very unreliable one for several reasons. Irene has an issue with psychological projection. Psychological projection is a defense mechanism where a person …show more content…
Throughout the novel, Irene keeps referencing how discontented Brian is with their lives and wants to go to Brazil. Brazil represents two things. In "That Unreasonable Restless Feeling": The Homosexual Subtexts of Nella Larsen's Passing the choice of Brazil is explained as a representation of sexual and racial freedom. Brazil is a more open to gay relationships and has been so since the discovery of Brazil by European settlers. It’s also never prosecuted homosexual relationships. Overall, “Brazil the society that is least racist, is also most tolerant and least repressive toward homosexuals”. (Blackmore, pg. 477) This is an important thing to note as Irene accuses her husband of being gay more than once. The first time being at the tea party where she says, “he does not care for women but South America” (Larsen, pg.