Irene Believes Clare example essay topic

Leslie M. KonenPassing and Human Relationships huge amount of literature was created exclusively for African Americans during Larsen's time. For the first time, African Americans were being told that it was okay to be proud of who they were. This new knowledge and self-awareness was important in many works of literature, but a number of writers began exploring the darker side of this group with literature that concentrated on the pessimistic aspects of race relations in America. Nella Larsen's novel, Passing, focuses on this idea with the story of Clare, a tragic mulatto who 'passes' as a white person.

Not only is Passing representative of the dilemma of the tragic mulatto, it is also a novel that explores the difficulties of human relationships. Clare Kendry's life is a great example of the difficulty of the tragic mulatto. In Passing, Clare seems to have and urge to go back to the African American world she left. Clare tells her friend Irene Redfield that 'she can't know how in this pale life of mine I am all the time seeing the bright pictures of that other that I once thought I was glad to be free of... It's like an ache, a pain that never ceases' (Larsen 145). She also realizes a great deal how she wants to see African Americans, 'to be with them again, to talk with them, to hear them laugh' (Larsen 200).

Even though Irene feels that there is 'nothing sacrificial in Clare's idea of life, no allegiance beyond her own immediate desire,' (Larsen 144) it is obvious that Clare's wish to return to her African American race is sincere, even if the reasons seem unfair. Irene believes Clare to be 'selfish, cold and hard' (Larsen 144). Irene also feels that Clare does not have 'even the slightest artistic or sociological interest in the race that some members of other races displayed. [She] cared nothing of the race, she only belonged to it' (Larsen 182).

While there may be a little truth to this report, it does not lessen Clare's own pain at having to deny her African American legacy, and her longing to return to it. Irene isn't being fair to Clare. She is not being the true friend that Clare needs. Irene represents a piece of society who feel that people who pass must have a ethically satisfactory reason to return to their African American roots such as a want to rebel against a white humanity that has forced them into the role of a white person.

In my opinion, Clare's desire to return to her own race on her own terms demonstrates her independence in the face of a conventional tragic mulatto, no matter what her 'friend' Irene thinks. Clare may not be the classic tragic mulatto, but her actions confirm that she belongs in this group of literary heroines. Clare Kendry passes in order to secure a more steady life. Her desire to do this begins when she is young, after her African American father dies and she is left with her white aunts. Clare begins to desire more than what she has as an African American.

In order to get what she craves Clare marries a white man, John Bellew, under the deception that she is white. Clare is then required to rebuff everything about her girlhood, family, her language, folk background, and the whole long line of people that have gone ahead of her. She understands that this is the single way she can get the middle-class permanence she desires. Passing, for Clare, it seems, means to lose one's soul. The reality that she has to deny her identity in order to feel protected ultimately leads to her recognition that her life has become a lie. Clare tells Irene that she 'nearly died of terror the whole nine months before Margery (her daughter) was born for fear that she might be dark' (Larsen 168).

Her husband nicknamed her 'Nig,' because she gets darker each day. To me, this seems so impersonal. John needs to be more supportive of Clare and his baby, no matter what. Even though Clare's wish to return to the African American society externally seemed only unusual, secretly, Irene begins to see 'something groping, and hopeless, and yet so absolutely determined' inside this woman (Larsen 200).

Clare will stop at nothing to leave the life she once desired in order to return to the African American society. Clare begins to recognize that her need to return to her African American birthright surpasses any catastrophe it may cause. In order to 'get the things she wants badly enough, she'd do anything, hurt anybody, throw anything away' (Larsen 210). In my opinion, Clare's ultimate 'loss of soul' is realized in the reality that she is ready to desert her family, including her daughter, in order to regain her racial identity. This, not her ultimate death, becomes Clare's final tragedy. She loses something of her own soul living in the humanity of white men.

Clare feels that civilization forces her to desert her family merely because part of her is African American. The fact that Clare pretends to be white in order to secure a reasonably steady life is critical to understanding the incentives for people who 'pass'. Clare also passes because it allows her to marry a man of wealth. Because she, similar to most other black women of the 1920's, if she accomplished any middle-class status, did it by good worth of a man's existence in her life by virtue of his class. Clare tells Irene 'money's awfully nice to have. In fact all things considered... it's even worth the price' (Larsen 160) of passing.

Clare's inspiration for passing does not mean that she feels that the African American race is below her. Instead, she realizes that passing permits her to escape the poverty she faces as an African American. Clare's motive for entering the white population is to gain financial viability, which John Bellew can grant for her. Irene can pass if she desires, but her marriage to a highly regarded African American doctor already protects her status in the middle-class black culture. She does not have to cover her true individuality because she has already achieved the same kind of social rank that Clare greatly desires. Irene does sporadically pass, more apparently out of coincidence.

Her feelings of being exposed in the Drayton, passing as a white woman, demonstrate her conflict. She does not desire to be shamed and asked to leave because of her black heritage, but on the other hand, she does not want to pass to permit approval there. Irene's passing is deceitful because she considers it tolerable for herself to do it, but is frustrated in Clare for using the same method. Irene does not totally pass into the white society as Clare does, but her readiness to mislead in order to gain social status, like the tea at the Drayton, demonstrates another drive behind passing. The idea of passing is important in Larsen's novel, however, Passing, also centers on the complication of human relationships. The racial problems of the novel enlighten obscure relationships between Clare, Irene and Brian.

Irene Redfield is a woman whose most prized possession is the security of her life. She regards 'all other plans, all other ways... as menaces, more of less indirect, to that security of place and substance which she insists up on for her sons and in a lesser degree for herself' (Larsen 190). This is why her relationship with her husband Brian is so strained. She cannot understand why he dreams of moving away from the United States. This would mean change, and Irene does not 'like changes, particularly changes that affected the smooth routine of her household' (Larsen 188). The middle class life she so desperately clings to threatens to be torn from her because of Brian's unhappiness with their life.

Eventually, 'For the sake of security and control, life with her husband becomes a series of routine gestures, interaction becomes staging, talk becomes dialogue, and relations become the public performing of the privately rehearsed' (Larsen 192). Brian is 'always the attentive husband' to Irene, whose own desire to control her life inevitably threatens and destroys their marriage (Larsen 215). Irene also knows that 'prestige and standing in the black community amount to nothing in the absence of her husband' (Davis 95). This is why Irene becomes determined to keep her marriage together when she feels that Clare is threatening to tear it apart. Irene's middle class life not only represents her desire for security, but also illustrates why Clare's passing, a very dangerous way of living, mesmerizes her. It is as if Clare 'who had done this rather dangerous and, to Irene Redfield, abhorrent thing successfully and had announced herself well satisfied, had for her a fascination, strange and compelling' (Larsen 161).

Irene finds passing both detestable and attractive at the same time. She believes that 'it's funny about passing. We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we admire it. We shy away from it like an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it' (Larsen 185-186).

Irene's vague feelings about passing demonstrate her fascination with Clare Kendry's dilemma. Because of Irene's status in the African American society, she cannot understand Clare's desire to re-enter the African American community. Clare, as a white woman, has all of the esteem and supremacy that Irene has and giving it up would be a direct threat to the security that Clare had fought so hard to gain. However, Clare Kendry realizes that her own social status is meaningless if she is forced to hide her African American identity. Ironically, Irene's own adoption of white middle-class values makes it impossible for her to understand Clare's desire for acceptance in the African American community she feels most comfortable in. The fact that Clare left the African American community to realize the same kind of social status that Irene achieves completely escapes her.

Irene's inability to understand Clare's plight clearly illustrates the complexities of such explorations. Clare Kendry outwardly seems to be the complete opposite of Irene. It is apparent that Irene is both attracted to and repulsed by Clare Kendry just like she is with her passing. Nella Larsen's decision to tell this story from the point of view of Irene, allows the novel to be more about the complex and ambivalent responses a woman could have to passing, as opposed to the psychology of the woman who is passing (Davis 98). This is illustrated by Irene's responses to Clare's characteristics as well as her passing. Instead of concentrating on Clare's familiarity, Larsen's decision to focus on Irene's view of Clare's actions makes Passing a more confrontational novel.

Irene's view of Clare is definitely partial. Clare does not seem to have 'any proper morals or sense of duty' (Larsen 210) because she is required to fight untruthfully in order to get what she wants. Society does not offer her any other options to be a victorious woman. Although Clare Kendry's troubles might at times illicit shame, her actions seldom appear to be disbelieving. She can also be described as hard, immoral, and quite selfish in her search for gladness or, at least, satisfaction.

One example that illustrates this is when Clare doubts the intentions of an acquaintance who becomes Jewish. She does not believe the idea that 'everyone doesn't do everything for gain' because 'it does not occur to [her]' (Larsen 169). Obviously, Clare's intentions always depend on what will be gained by her personally. Her selfishness is also apparent when she allows her husband to call her 'Nig' in the presence of Irene and Gertrude. Irene finds it 'hard to believe that even Clare Kendry would permit this ridiculing of her race by an outsider, though he chanced to be her husband' (Larsen 170). Even when Irene reminds Clare the implications of her return to the African American community might have on her daughter, Clare tells Irene that 'being a mother is the cruelest thing in the world' (Larsen 197).

Like Irene, Brian's feelings towards Clare appear to be ambiguous. When he first becomes aware of Clare's desire to return to the African American race after years of passing, he believes that people like Clare are 'scared enough most of the time, when they give way to the urge and slip back' (Larsen 185). Brian, as seen through Irene's eyes, seems to hold no attraction for people like Clare. However, once she is regularly invited to join their company, Irene begins to feel threatened by her presence. Brian's personal invitation to Clare at Irene's tea party confirms her suspicion that he is attracted to her ad that they quite possibly could be having an affair. Irene's constant obsession with security drives Brian to admire Clare's ability to sacrifice her own security in order to be happy.

Although Irene's suspicions are never confirmed, the very fact that Clare disturbs 'the pleasant routine of her life' with her 'menace of impermanence' (Larsen 229) causes Irene to understand that she, like Clare must now risk everything in order to have the live she struggles for. In the end, Irene becomes just as corrupt as Clare to keep her life intact. Irene never tells her husband or Clare about her notion that John Bellew may know that Clare is passing after running into her on the street. Irene is scared that Clare might end up being free and 'of all things that could happen, that was the one thing that she didn't want' (Larsen 228). Irene realizes that Clare's liberty might mean the end of her sanctuary, and she cannot let that happen.

Instead, Irene believes that the death of Clare is the only way she will really be free of her, foreshadowing the terrible ending of the woman who passes. Although it is not clear just how Clare falls from the window after Jon discovers her dishonesty, just before the fall Irene reveals 'that she couldn't have Clare Kendry cast aside by Bellew... she couldn't have her free' (Larsen 239). This tells that Irene is very likely accountable for Clare's death. Although the vagueness adjoining the incident prevents determining Irene's guilt beyond a practical disbelief, she seems to be the one character who benefits the most from Clare's death. In the end, the variations between Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield are overshadowed by their similarities revealing that their relationships are just as noteworthy as the subject of passing. Nella Larsen's Passing effectively deals with the troubles of the 'tragic mulatto,' and the complexities of human relationships.

Her literary donation is important because of her capability to boldly handle a sensitive racial issue while also exploring the consequences of this issue on human relationships. It is obvious that Larsen included both the social and psychological characteristics of passing in her novel, and I believe that is what truly made the novel great..