“Passing” by Nella Larsen: An Analysis by Willow V. Hello! This is an assignment that I did for my Harlem Renaissance American Literature class. This essay is my own original work. In Nella Larsen’s “Passing” a Black woman named Irene Redfield, who is usually seen as “an Italian, a Spaniard, a Mexican, or a gipsy. Never, when she was alone, had they even remotely seemed to suspect that she was a Negro” (Larsen), finds out that her childhood friend, Clare Kendry, has been passing as White after seeing her in Chicago for the first time in 12 years. There are 3 sections of the novella; Encounter, Re-Encounter, and Finale. The first section, Encounter, includes the event in Chicago mentioned above, along with Irene being invited to visit Clare at her hotel in Chicago where Clare Kendry and her extremely racist husband, John Bellew. Mr. Bellew has absolutely no idea that Clare isn’t actually White, and calls her “Nig” because “When we wer...
Hello! This is my essay that I did on Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” for my African American Literature Class this quarter. Please do not copy my work. Recitatif by Toni Morrison: A Rhetorical Analysis Toni Morrison’s “Recitatif” tells the story of two girls living in New York, one Black and one White (but you will never know who is what), and the development of their relationship from being close friends to going separate paths but still happening upon each other. The two most central characters are Twyla and Roberta, Twyla is the narrator of the story, and there is five main parts of the story where their paths cross. There is also a particularly important side character, Maggie, who worked in the kitchen of the St. Bonaventure shelter the girls stayed in for four months. Toni Morrison uses strong imagery and details along with words and sentences that are not too complex to give the story a tense, somber, and sometimes immature mood....