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Racism And Racial Segregation In Passing By Nella Larsen

485 Words2 Pages

In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, it addresses the issue of racism and racial segregation. The act of “passing” is the main element in this novel. A black women who is trying to pass as a white woman. The novel takes place in Harlem, New York in the mid 1920’s during the Harlem renaissance. Irene, the main protagonist is how we learn about passing for another race. She is reunited with her childhood friend, Clare Kendry who is also black and is passing for white. The reason that these women are passing for another race is just so they can try and live a normal life. There are people in the novel who do nothing but make life hard for the girls. Larsen uses antagonist characters to show what it would have been to live at the time as a black woman. For example, Larsen uses Clare's husband, Jack as the main antagonist for the girl's passing. Jack is a racist and sometimes even misogynistic husband. He never ceases to let the girls know when he doesn’t like something that they do. His racist statements and beliefs really take a toll on Clare. There is one part in the book where Clare says, “I feel like I have the weight of the world on my shoulders''. She also states that she feels like she needs to get away for a few months and that Jack would not …show more content…

The girls friendship slowly but surely goes downhill. Larsen does a great job in forming both Irene and Clare’s character arcs. You start to realize that Irene really does not like Clare. Clare is always trying to join Irene on social gatherings so that she can reconnect with her old friends that are the same race. Yet, Irene hates what Clare is representing and at the end of the day has the same feelings toward Clare herself. As the novel goes on, Larsen does a great job of giving Irene a ruthless attitude. For example, Clare clearly states her suffering and longing for a normal life, yet Irene still has contradictory views toward

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