Eng 230 Kassie Markovich
Prof. Wolfe
04/26/11
Race Class, and a Journey Towards Identity: A Critical Analysis of Passing.
On three centuries removed
From the scenes his father loved,
Spicy grove, cinnamon tree,
What is Africa to me? -Countee Cullen
An introduction to the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, these four lines summarize what I propose the author was trying to convey in her psychological analysis of the Harlem Renaissance. All of the characters are united by their race yet they lack any agreement of what it means to be African. Carrying American at the end of their group identity, they have all become acculturated to an environment removed from their ancestors, leaving each to form his own ideas of how race fits into his identity. As we look at a character analysis of four representatives of this cultural time period portrayed in Passing, we will see that family values, class, and personality play integral roles into the life each individual pursues and how the social construction of race only unites the characters because of their shared oppression.
Clare Kendry, a young woman who physically passes for an upper class European American in a society discriminatory against African Americans, her true ethnic group, is sometimes seen as the novel’s main character because of her literal representation of the title. Critics such as Cheryl Wall believe she represents a stereotypical mulatto woman whose choices are an inevitability of the environment she was born. I think Wall’s interpretation on Clare’s psyche is enlightening in the fact that she makes apparent the influence our environment can have on our pursuit of happiness, or lack there of (362). Where I would differ from her interpretation is that she doesn’t take the freedom of choice Clare had far back enough. Though Clare may have been inhibited and at the same time compelled by her race to seek freedom, the events that lead her to this choice of life are a shocking insight into her character.
In the first part of the book, Clare’s relationship with her father resembles an anxious ambivalent type of attachment. According to developmental psychologists Bartholomew and Horowitz, this is a type of attachment develops when a parent shows inconsistent patterns of behavior, leaving the child with a negative and positive view of self and others. (226-244) Her father is said to have been abusive towards Clare, but also hard working and supportive. Her reaction to her father, as a result of mixed signs of care and rejection, is one of withdrawal and pursuit of love (Larsen, 5). Through her relationship with her father she has learned to never completely depend on someone else but also has seen the potential good nature one can posses. This leads her to seek and pull away from those she cares about. As attachment styles usually last throughout one’s life, Clare repeats this type of relationship all throughout the novel. She is described in childhood as catlike. Certainly that was the word which best described her. Sometimes she was hard and apparently without feeling at all; sometimes she was affectionate and rashly impulsive.” (Larsen, 6). When Clare’s father died she was sent to live with her white aunts who showed a similar type of acceptance of her by looking out for her future but also reflecting negative opinions of her based on her race. Acquiring a type of defensive survival, this leads her to seek a life that would be materialistically fulfilling (Larsen, 19). On the outside it seems like she had become indifferent to relationships, but a closer look reveals that the man she married in order to pursue her wealth resembles her past experiences with her father and aunts. Clare entered into a serious commitment with a man who would never fully accept her if he knew her true race. After her husband, Jack, declared he would leave her if he found out that she were black regardless of the relationship they had built over time, Clare decided to try to reconnect with Irene and her race, a place she might find real acceptance. After Clare shared this with her childhood friend, Irene, the latter envisioned, “Clare Kendry staring disdainfully down at the face of her father, and thought that is would be like that she would look at her husband if he lay dead before her” (Larsen, 47). Though, even this isn’t a source of genuine love because Irene recalls that Clare was never part of her group of friends growing up as a result of Clare’s lower social class (Larsen, 14). Even towards her daughter, she couldn’t completely commit herself as she relates to Irene in regards to Margery’s well being, “children aren’t everything” (Larsen, 58). From Clare’s passing to her attempt to rejoin her race, she has unsuccessfully looked for love and acceptance. It’s the desire to feel accepted that guides her decisions towards finding a group identity and her fear of rejection that keeps her from a full commitment. As Clare reflects on her impulsive lifestyle, “Well then, what does it matter? One risk more or less, if we’re not safe anyway, if even you’re not, it can’t make all the difference in the world to me. It can’t to me. Besides I’m used to risks. (Larsen, 48)
Irene Redfield, the other leading female character in the story is described as an upper middle class African American woman who tries to live up to the standards of her social status. She throws tea parties, judges her company on intelligence and dress, and finds the street life of Chicago to be draining as she aspires to the cooling and refined environment of upper class society (Larsen, 8-9). I propose that this fixation with class results from a combination of personality and upbringing. Irene grew up in a comfortable middle class environment with parents who not only cared for her, but also showed concern towards her less privileged friend, Clare (Larsen, 13). With a stable group of friends and family she made a comfortable transition into a stable marriage with a well off Manhattan doctor (Larsen, 14,15). This choice was natural and wanted by her because it would keep her in a sheltered life, content. Reflecting on her marriage, she thought, “ He was the husband and father to her sons. But was he anything more? Had she ever wanted or tried for more? In that hour she thought not” (Larsen). The desire for stability and comfort lies within her personality, carried down through her son Junior. Just like her mother, Junior is described as ‘practical and determined’ (Larsen, 44). What need is there to move beyond what is safe and comfortable, a practical Irene might reason?
Still, within a segregated society the negative connotations associated with her race compete with her attainment of a perfectly superficial life. She is reminded of this when she passes in the Drayton, fearing she might get caught and be humiliated in the high-end restaurant. Irene knows that no matter how much she tries to assimilate herself with mainstream middle class white standards, she will never be fully accepted because of the color of her skin (Larsen, 11). When she sees Clare for the first time, she becomes fascinated with her, “Negro eyes! mysterious and concealing. And set in that ivory face under that bright hair, there was about them something exotic.” (Larsen, 21) Irene’s interpretation of Clare’s bi-racial features might reflect her personal search towards a bi-cultural identity: her own racial background, and the one she’s adopted. As Clare represents the best of both worlds to Irene, she finds her appearance stunning and her opinion important, as elaborated by critic Youman, who notes that Irene dismisses another’s opinion based on her husband’s appearance resembling that of a butcher. She can’t dismiss Clare’s because she fits perfectly into her utopia of comfort within a minority identity (339).
Irene’s husband Brian, as stated earlier, is a doctor in Manhattan who lives a seemingly comfortable life in middle class society. Yet, his desire to move to South America for a better chance at equality leaves him continually restless and disturbed. It isn’t status or a need for love that fuels his desire, but his high intellect. When talking to Irene about race, Brian clearly understands that the whites who don’t understand the concept that race does not make one better or worse than another are the ones at a disadvantage because they will always be blinded from the truth (Larsen, 38). Just as Junior reflects Irene, the younger son Tim displays Brian’s speculative and withdrawn character (Larsen, 44). Looking at his reality from an objective standpoint Brian reasons that life abroad is the only solution to obtaining true equality. Finding dissatisfaction in a job he believes he is overqualified for, his desire to reach as high as he can achieve is his primary motivation (Larsen, 40). It is his race that keeps him from reaching his full potential through his mind and fuels his desire for a satisfying career that reflects his perceived worth.
The last character we will look at plays a small role on the surface of the narrative, but offers an excellent example of what could happen when a minority person doesn’t become afflicted by her race. This character is Gertrude. In high school she fell for a white man during a racially segregated time in history. As we’ve seen through the last three characters, the issue of race could have had a negative impact on her pursuit of happiness, yet the novel tells us that her and his parents were supportive of the relationship. Because of this familial acceptance during a critical time of identity formation, the two ended up getting married, much to their satisfaction (Larsen, 24). The positive effects of this are displayed through Gertrude’s countenance at the reunion with Clare and Irene. When Clare and Irene talk of opposing view of passing, Gertrude is able to understand both sides of the issue with an even temper. When Clare’s husband unknowingly releases painful racial insults onto the guests, Gertrude is able keep her cool while later showing her extreme distaste for the former to Irene in private (Larsen 26-27, 32). Her ability to relate and tolerate both racial classes with such logic and a cool head is a likely result of her exposure and acceptance within these two groups early in life. I think Gertrude is a crucial example in showing us the social construction of race and the effects that only result when one feels a need to defend himself because of it.
Because Gertrude doesn’t appear very much in the story I will limit the rest of this paper to focus on the interactions within the first three characters. Because this interpretation approaches this subject from a psychological stance, it is important to look at the relationships between the main characters to find the reason for the inevitable downfall of Irene Redfield.
The friendship between Clare and Irene is interesting because of the apparent attraction between the two who have led opposite lives. It may be the mysteriousness encapsulated by both to the other that sustained their friendship opposed ultimately by their desired ends: for Clare, to be truly accepted and Irene, to be safe. Irene notes the lives of her and Clare are completely different and being able to relate to each other would be almost impossible: “ Between them the barrier was just as high, just as broad, and just as firm as if in Clare did not run that strain of black blood.” (Larsen, 44) Further in the novel she goes on to say that the complete opposite of oneself can invoke an excitement because of its strange quality.
I think that what they feel is- well, a kind of emotional excitement. You know, the sort of thing you feel in the presence of something strange…something so different that it’s really at the opposite end of the pole from all your accustomed notions of beauty (Larsen, 55)
The unusual transformation of Clare’s social class into a beauty encapsulating two worlds Irene can’t assimilate or make sense of is what ultimately sustains their friendship for that short period of time. It contradicts her entire experience but as Deborah McDowell points out in her critical article Black Female Sexuality in Passing, though they may not live identical lives, Clare and Irene are both on a search for identity that allows them to recognize that weakness in each other. Each possessing what the other wants only adds to the ‘attraction’ of their pursuit for self-understanding (373).
The relationship between Brian and Irene is one of convenience for the latter. Because of Brian’s discontentment, he secretly resents Irene for his settled life that his spirit and intellect strongly oppose. Without any major disturbances everything remains calm. It isn’t until Irene’s and Brian’s most unsettled character enters that their settlement is violently shaken: “ No use pretending that he was happy, that things were the same as they had always been. He wasn’t and they weren’t. However, she assured herself, it needn’t be because of anything that involved Clare” (Larsen, 68).
Clare and Brian both try to upset the status quo of society in order to achieve a fuller acceptance of self, Brian through his career and Clare through a sense of belonging. Their dispositions highly contrast and upset that of Irene’s. When it was just Brian’s restlessness she had to keep under control it almost ended her marriage (Larsen, 40). With the introduction of Clare to his life, his old desires are reawakened by her reminder of the possibility to take risks for the pursuit of happiness. Seeing her adventurous life at the very least invoked a sense of motivation in him that had been somewhat suppressed by Irene. When Clare suspects that this dream could have been reawakened in him she becomes frantic, but can’t figure out why she had lost control. She assumes adultery, but with the lack of evidence to support this claim even in her own mind (Larsen, 68-69), I propose that this interpretation was only a temporary answer to her problem of how she had lost control. Underneath she knew Clare’s entrance had something to do with it, but she may have been to overwhelmed at the thought of losing her security in middle-class America to have realized just how it happened. Yet, she knew one thing: Clare Kendry had to go. Controlling Brian was almost too much and she knew that with Clare’s indirect support and influence she would very likely lose everything her life was based on. The conflict with racial acceptance and class represented in these characters is portrayed as beyond reconciliation. The class of Irene can’t permit the happiness of Brian, yet Clare reminds him that the importance of his own sense of identity will not fade away in Irene’s restricted society.
Through the interactions of the novel’s characters we see the conflict between class and identity formation. How one incorporates the meaning of race into their identity usually results from how it has oppressed them. African American studies professor Jennifer Brody suggests a similar idea by saying that Clare maintained her cultural heritage while Irene gave this up for class (396). Though race and class do conflict between all three characters, and more directly between these two, I argue that it’s not a definitive culture that Clare identified with, but a group that would accept her for the element she had been previously oppressed. As all three had very different beginnings, as well as being unique individuals, we see that race is not inborn, but the social construction of oppression based on ancestry unites these characters that have felt it’s undeserving weight on their pursuit of happiness. I believe Larsen was trying to show us that features or behavior couldn’t group African Americans, like anyone else, because we are all different people who deserve individual regard and respect. When this is taken away, the individual doesn’t disappear but will fight harder for his happiness.
Works Cited
Bartholomew, K., & Horowitz, L. M. Attachment Styles Among Young Adults: A Test of a Four-Category Model. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1991.
Brody, Jennifer. “Clare Kendry’s ‘True’ Colors: Race and Class Conflict in Nella Larsen’s Passing.” W.W. Norton and Company, 2007.
Cullen, Countee. “Heritage.” W.W. Norton and Company, 2007.
McDowell, Deborah. “Black Female Sexuality in Passing.” Passing: A Norton Critical Edition. W.W. Norton and Company, 2007.
Wall, Cheryl. “Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen’s Novels.” W.W. Norton and Company, 2007.
Youman, Mary. “Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Study in Irony.” W.W. Norton and Company, 2007.
