Summary Of Passing By Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues they face during their ‘passing’ journey through her characters of Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. During the reading process, we progressively realize ‘passing’ in Harlem, New York during the 1920s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges progress ahead. Although Larsen decides the novella to be told in a third person narrative, different thoughts and messages of Irene and Clare communicate broken ideas for the reader which causes the interpretation of the novella to vary from distinct perspectives. Jakobson’s model of

One of the final encounters between Clare and Irene was in-person and unannounced on Clare’s behalf as she stops at Irene’s house. She does so in hopes of conversating in person about her ideas of reconnecting with her racial identity. As Irene becomes aware of Clare's sudden visit, she then begins to panic and directly stutters "Oh dear! Tell her, Zulena, that I can't-no" (Larsen 95). Irene was demonstrating emotive language to illustrate the fear she possessed for Clare's sudden visit as she has no excuse to escape from her presence. As Irene gathers herself together with no choice, she then allows Clare in and they both begin conversating. Irene's direct discourse conveys different messages to the reader as she demonstrates two different conative functions. While Irene speaks directly to Clare in regards to her inactivity of replying her letters, she declares "you see-I can't help thinking that you ought not to come up here, ought not to run the risk of knowing Negroes" (Larsen 97). Moments ago, Irene became surprised to witness Clare in person and dreaded the idea of her entering her house. When the two speak eye to eye, Irene then suddenly shifts her dialogue in an unusual manner to make herself look more emotive and concerned. She does this method so readers can see her care

The narrator was indeed third-person perspective, but it focalized from Irene Redfield’s point of view which allowed us rightfully believe the narrator was unreliable. The letters, phone calls, and in-person conversations communicated to the reader were based on Irene’s personal judgment, rather than an unbiased viewpoint. As Jakobson summarized best, communication between the addresser and the addressee are critical to comprehending as it serves as the surface of all readings. The true description of Clare’s letters wasn't properly communicated as the narrator sent the addressee two different kinds of message. In addition, the phone calls between Clare and Irene only communicated one end of the phone call rather than both sides, causing statics within the text. Continuing on, Irene’s and Clare’s face to face conversations displays two different discourses, leading us to speculate the true honesty of the narrator. At the tragic scene of Clare’s fall, we question the conclusion of what could have happened due to Irene’s perspective ineffectively matching the events; permitting us to then, with evidence, to view the narrator as unreliable. By carefully reading a novella such as Passing, we can definitely understand the general message portrayed. Depending on how the story is communicated, we can encode the message