Passing By Nella Larsen: Analysis Of Irene’S Identity
James Baldwin once said, “An identity would seem to be arrived at by the way in which the person faces and uses his experience”. Being one of America’s greatest novelists of the 20th century, he composed a lot about the exploration of race and social issues. Compared to Nella Larsen, writing during the Harlem Renaissance explores much of the same issues in her novel Passing.
Throughout the novel, her protagonist, Irene Redfield, tackles with her own identity as she is an avid activist for her black race, even though she “passes” as white when alone. She is a married woman with two children that displays subtle romantic feelings for Clare, her estranged friend from childhood that she recently reconnected with. Larson’s work suggests that Irene is unsure of how to live life in the way she wants to because of the obstructions the racial norm of race, gender and sexuality holds. In Passing, Irene is as devoted as they come for the black society and is very proud of her race but will “pass” as white when convenient for her. In a flashback, it is learned that Irene was in Chicago a few years back and she is hit with a sudden stroke of heat and almost passes out. She hails a cab and is taken to the Drayton Hotel to get a cold iced tea. This hotel is white-only, and she was brought here by the cab driver, who assumed she was a white woman. This shows how race is not determined so easily and she has “fooled” the driver. She ran with his ignorance because white people “took her for an Italian, Spaniard, a Mexican or a gypsy. Never, when she was alone, had they even remotely seemed to suspect that she was a Negro”.
Jim Crow laws are in full effect in this time period, therefore, a black woman such as herself would not be allowed into this restaurant targeted for white costumers only. Irene shows signs paranoia, as she is worried the woman next to her recognizes her and will expose her as a black, “feeling her color heightened under the continued inspection, she slid her eyes down”. Through her passing, she isolates herself from her black identity, as she looks whiter than most but still continues to be a proud supporter of the black race. Clearly, Irene ascertains that race is not as clear-cut as many people point it out to be when she and Clare are able to pass through “black” blood is racing through their veins. Irene’s confusion of her own identity expands further to her expression of ambiguous feelings towards Clare.
In the time period of Passing, 1920’s women had to be categorically within the norm of all other women. You must take care of your children, stay true to your spouse and keep the house in order. Never really, is it shown that a woman comes out of her comfort zone, sexually. Irene’s conflicting feelings about Clare and thinking of her in a more sexual way than her own husband. When Clare comes over to Irene’s, she gives her a kiss on the head and that feeling that Irene gets from this kiss was “a sudden inexplicable onrush of affectionate feeling. Reaching out, she grasped Clare’s two hands in her own and cried out with something like awe in her voice: “Dear God! But aren’t you lovely Clare!”. Irene is attracted to Clare, but she is subconsciously jealous of her and is becoming obsessed with the way Clare looks and how she can act to conceal her true identity. She describes Clare with so many vivid details, “Arresting eyes, slow and mesmeric, and with, for all their warmth, something withdrawn and secret about them. Ah! Surely! They were Negro eyes! Mysterious and concealing. And set in that ivory face under that bright hair, there was about them something exotic”.
Irene is obsessed with Clare because she is the epitome of what Irene could never have. She sees the black Clare passes as white so easily that her contrast between white and black identity is something that Irene could never attain. Being an avid member of the black community, she is supposed to be proud of her skin color but her attraction to Clare and her ability to pass as white as well as she does is something that contemplates Irene. Irene’s uncertainty of self-identity follows when her underlying thoughts she that she is not only jealous of her looks but that she could get the attention of her husband. Irene has her suspicions about Clare and Brian and the affair they are having together. She describes them at the party as talking more intimately than they have ever before. Though, she never thought of her husband, as anything more than, “a pleasant masculine way, rather handsome” until Clare brought attention to Brian. Irene described Brian notably less compared to Clare because she finds something exotic in her, something she cannot have. This makes her much more tangled about her own sense of self because Irene does not know whether or not she loves Brian, or she is jealous that he is giving her attention that she wishes she would receive. Irene is projecting her desires onto Clare and assuming that she and Brian are getting together. Her mind is not knowing what reality is because of this confusion. Irene is a woman that occasionally “passes” but will barely condone it because of the negative connotations the community relates to it.
In Part One, Chapter three, she was having a get together with Clare and their mutual, Gertrude. She passes, openly, with her white husband knowing she is black. Both women have married white men and she is the only one that married a black and she feels outnumbered. This is why eventually, she does not want to be seen with Clare. It is known that she has married white, with the passing that Clare does, is not seen well in their society. When they talk about their children, she is infuriated when the two women talk about not having more than one child because of the risk that the baby will come out dark. Irene has two of her own, showing a deep contrast between the two women since one of her sons is dark. She loves her sons and has a deep maternal connection with her children and is not worried that they cannot pass. Irene perfectly explains passing, “It’s funny about ‘passing. ’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it. ” Living in a world where blacks and whites were so segregated, and it was dangerous to live as a black in a white neighborhood and vice versa, people of mixed races have the option to sway into the direction that they can recognize safer. When Irene says “we protect it”, it being the ability to pass, it is implying she is protecting her safety and the possible opportunities she can partake in passing as white. There is an obvious dilemma here because she will pass from time to time but also regret it because she feels like she is betraying her black identity, even though it is tempting at times to have these opportunities.
In conclusion, Larsen’s depiction of Irene’s identity is influenced by her society and how each societal value is based. She points out Irene’s confusion through how she wants to live her life because she has attractions to Clare but as a mother and woman of the black community, she cannot act on her temptations. Passing could have many definitions one being the concealing one’s race another being transition from “life” to “death. ” As Irene has not successfully been able to pass, it can be a good thing. Even though Clare has successfully passed for so many years, another definition of passing has been placed on her, as she physically passed away. Irene’s identity is established by her.
