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Summary Of Passing By Nella Larson

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Nella Larson’s novella, Passing, includes characters who struggle with their identity. Clare Kendry, specifically, struggles with her identity tremendously. Clare was born as an African American woman, but because of her pale skin, it is easy for her to be accepted as a white woman. During this time period, African Americans were not granted the same privileges that whites were. Whites were looked at as superior to African Americans. Therefore, whites lived an easier lifestyle. Throughout the novella, Clare enjoys identifying herself as a white woman to the public because of the social comforts she attains. When she later realizes how much she misses truly feeling comfortable, she wishes she could identify as an African American woman again.
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In Nella Larsen’s Passing, Irene Redfield, the central character of the book, spends a lot of time near windows. Windows are found throughout the book, and they are a place where Irene and Clare are able to reflect upon their emotions. Irene expresses a range of emotions throughout the duration of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Irene’s demeanor is calm, but at the end of the book, she is more reckless emotionally. Depending on the circumstances in which Irene is looking out of a window, we are able to determine her emotional state at that point in time.

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When you read a book you expect it to have one definitive ending to the story. What if one book had its ending changed after a few of its original books were already published? The changes made for those endings were very small but radically changed the story. The book is passing by Nella Larson. The change in the ending of the book confused book historians because those two different endings give 2 different outcomes.

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1534 Words | 7 Pages

Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women 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 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach 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, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives. Jakobson’s model of communication provides a visual guide to help

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575 Words | 3 Pages

1920’s society offered a prominent way for blacks that look white to exploit its barrier and pass in society. Visible within Nella Larsen’s Passing, access to the regular world exists only for those who fit the criteria of white skin and white husband. Through internal conflict and characterization, the novella reveals deception slowly devours the deceitful. In Passing, Clare and Irene both deceive people. They both engage in deceit by having the ability to pass when they are not of the proper race to do so.

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684 Words | 3 Pages

In a conversation about passing, Clare describes how she successfully passes over and what exactly it is that makes her so successful in doing so. Irene, curious to know how, asks these questions because she cannot believe the fact that Clare has abandoned her background and where she comes from. She then comes to the conclusion that as Clare has no background to present to the white community, she must have made up stories. In Passing, the author Nella Larsen enhances this passage in numerous ways in order to provide meaning. The importance of this conversation is emphasized by the diction used to create significant meaning, the supporting of themes presented throughout the novella, and the details regarding arising conflicts throughout the novella.

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2142 Words | 9 Pages

Through Larsen's characters Irene and Clare, she delves deeper into how passing creates tension between the two characters; furthermore, this is backed up by Nikki Khanna and Cathryn Johnson in their literary piece “Passing as Black: Racial Identity Work among Biracial Americans,” who discuss the strides American society has taken to create equal opportunities for all races and get rid of that tension between interracial relationships. Larsen also states that passing is not something biracial people want to do, but it is forced upon them by society and the opportunities they can have by identifying as another race. To back this up, Kathia Woods in her literary piece, “Passing explains why racial issues are just black and white,” furthermore supports the complexity of passing and how society is a major contributor to why people choose to pass. Overall, Nella Larsen's novel reinforces that biracial people often struggle with their racial identity, which can be backed up by Sebright's article, Nella Larsen's idea that passing historically has disturbed relationships in modern society is challenged in Khanna and Johnson's

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409 Words | 2 Pages

Nella Larson’s novel Passing, tells the story of two African American women Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry who embark on a journey to “reconnect” with one another. Although, similar in appearance, these two women were very different in the way they determined race. For women like Irene and Clare who were physically able to “pass” as white women, despite having African American heritage the typical connotation that race was distinguished by the color of one’s skin did not apply to them. As a result, many women like Irene and Clare would cross the racial lines. The character Clare Kendry was the perfect example of “passing.”

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1484 Words | 6 Pages

It is often said that a new definition of a woman arose in the 1920s. But is that true? While most women experienced many newfound freedoms in the 1920s, black women could not explore these freedoms as easily as white women. In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry grew up in Chicago together and are now both two wives and mothers in New York City during the 1920s, but there is a big difference between them. The novel’s title refers to light-skinned black women masquerading as white women for social benefits.

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694 Words | 3 Pages

Understanding one another through good, and bad, but allowing the other to get hurt causes greater problems. This quotation relates to the novel Passing because it shows the friendship between two childhood friends who rekindle their friendship as grown adults. The novel Passing, written by Nella Larsen talks about two African American woman with different experiences. The relationship between the two African American woman who share two different lifestyles, but similar in different ways. Both characters have many similarities and differences.

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Passing, a novel by Nella Larsen, addresses the issue of race by telling the story of two African American women - Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield - who represent different aspects of passing1. In the novel, passing refers to the process of crossing the color line, where a light skinned person who belongs to the black racial community enjoys white privilege2. However, people who pass struggle with double consciousness as they long to honor their race without necessarily being associated with it3. The novel is highly invested in ambiguity to show the fluidity and complexity of race, and how it paves the way for passing4. Passing illustrates the struggle African Americans face with their unchosen race and their attempt to control their identity

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1919 Words | 8 Pages

Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women 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 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach 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, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives.

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418 Words | 2 Pages

As a child, she recognized that her imitation of ‘White” afforded opportunities of mobility, education, acceptance and privilege. Her mother’s appearance as “Black” afforded opportunities of poverty, inferiority, and inequality. So, she fails to mention her mother’s identity and occupation to classroom peers and teacher. Sarah Jane wants cultural assimilation and white privilege.

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2025 Words | 9 Pages

“It wasn’t that she was ashamed of being a Negro, or even of having it declared. It was the idea of being ejected from any place, even in a polite and tactful way” (Larsen 8). This quote encompasses what it means for an individual to partake in ‘Passing.’ Through the process of passing, citizens of black descent were able to be socially accepted and never excluded from facilities and events that individuals who were declared black were restricted from. Irene and Clare meet up after twelve years of not being in contact.

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273 Words | 2 Pages

In “Passing: How posing as white became a choice for many black Americans,” by Monica L. Haynes, the major topic is passing. Passing is the ability of a person to be accepted

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1194 Words | 5 Pages

The discrimination against the white race begins with a gradual distinct treatment of the African Americans who appear to have a trace of the white race. Helene proves to have a more formal dialect as she asks for “the bathroom” (23) and the black woman cannot understand until Helene finally refers to it as “the toilet” (23). The difference in word choice distinct Helene from the African Americans in the Bottom. The fact that Helene also has fairer skin than the African Americans gives the black woman a reason to believe Helene has a trace of white. Therefore, when Helene approaches the black woman on the train, “[the woman fastens her eyes]…on the thick velvet, the fair skin, [and] the high tone voice” (23), as if surprised and shocked to see an African American women appear in such a manner.

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