“Passing” by Nella Larsen: An Analysis

 

“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 were first married, she was as white as-as-well as white as a lily. But I declare she's gettin' darker and darker. I tell her if she don't look out, she'll wake up one of these days and find she's turned into a nigger.” (Larsen). Irene, Clare, and another childhood friend of theirs, Gertrude, just have to laugh off Mr. Bellew’s racist remarks as if they believe the same thing as him. 

          In the section Re-Encounter, Irene’s husband Brian is introduced. After Irene receives a letter from Clare asking to see her again, Irene doesn’t respond. That leads Clare to visit Irene at her home in New York and ask her why she didn’t respond to her letter. Clare desperately wants to be around other Black people, but considering how racist her husband is and the fact that Clare has a child with him, Irene considers Clare’s desire to be “terribly foolish, and not just the right thing," (Larsen) due to the very obvious danger that Clare would come upon if her husband found out she wasn’t White. Despite this, Clare begins to visit New York every time Mr. Bellew is out on business and goes to many social events in Harlem with Irene and Brian. Only Brian and Irene know that Clare is Black, all of their friends see her as this “blonde beauty out of the fairy-tale,” (Larsen) who becomes the center of attention at every event she comes to, and regularly catches the eye of many men. 

          The section Finale takes place around Christmas time, Irene is very depressed and Brian is very withdrawn. Irene chalks up Brian’s behavior to his desire to escape the U.S. and move to Brazil. At a tea party in her  house, Irene realizes how close Brian and Clare are and comes to the conclusion that they’re having an affair and that’s why Brian is so withdrawn. While Irene was out shopping with her friend Felise Freeland, they come across Mr. Bellew. Felise discovers that Irene had been passing when around Mr. Bellew, and so does Mr. Bellew. Irene wanted to put Clare as passing too, but instead she doesn’t tell Felise that Mr. Bellew is Clare’s husband and blames it on “‘That instinctive loyalty to race’” (Larsen). Irene doesn’t tell anyone about this encounter. At another social event at Felise’s house, Brian shows up and confronts Clare about her passing and says "’So you're a nigger, a damned dirty nigger!’" (Larsen). Mr. Bellew drags Clare out, and everyone except Irene follows them. Eventually she comes outside and finds out that Clare is dead. 

          This book reminds me greatly of 2 Toni Morrison works, “Recitatif” and an excerpt of “God Help the Child”. I read both for my African-American literature class last quarter. Race is the main topic of both stories, colorism and passing in “God Help the Child” and the differences and similarities between Black and White people in “Recitatif”. “Passing” reminds me mostly of “Recitatif” as it’s about 2 girls that grew up together and eventually grew apart and their multiple encounters over the years of their adult lives. They both also have very emotionally charged endings. I’ll leave my essay on “Recitatif” from my blog linked in the works cited if you’d like to read it. 

          Plessy v. Ferguson was the Supreme Court case that determined that segregation laws didn’t violate the constitution as long as spaces that were segregated had "equal but separate accommodations for the white and colored races.” (“Plessy V. Ferguson (1896)”). Passing is when “when an individual portrays themselves or is regarded by others as a member of a social group other than the one that he or she belongs to, such as race, ethnicity, caste, social class, gender, sexuality, disability, etc.” (Rollins Scholarship Online). For example, I have autism and am 80% deaf in my left ear, I can pass as someone that is neurotypical by masking my symptoms and I can fake hearing and understanding what people say by guessing based off context clues or reading lips. Although I simply don’t have the energy, care, or motivation to do any of those things. Passing in the case of the book “Passing” is when a person of African descent who could be seen as White, decides to pass as White in an attempt to gain social mobility. Clare is passing as White, and Irene is passing as anything but Black (as seen in their first encounter together) (Larsen). 

          There’s multiple themes in this book, race, class, colorism, family, trauma, and infidelity, among other things. The one I was drawn to the most is infidelity. The scene where Clare and Irene first meet on the roof of the Drayton shows Clare being at the hotel with a man that was “very red in the face, who was mopping his neck and forehead with a big crumpled handkerchief.” (Larsen). Who is this man? Why was he with Clare at a hotel while her husband was there with her on a business trip? Why was he straightening his tie? Why was he so nervous and hesitated to leave? I think Clare cheated on her husband with this guy. Clare also had a very flirtatious way about her, as shown with her flashing a smile at the waiter   that was “just a shade too provocative for a waiter.” (Larsen). The theme of infidelity also returns again when Irene concludes that Brian and Clare are having an affair. You could also argue that Clare is being unfaithful to her race and her people by passing and subjecting herself and others (Irene and Gertrude) to her racist husband’s remarks. 

Works Cited: 

Larsen, Nella. Passing. 1929, scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/nella-larsen-passing-1929-full-text-of-novel.

“Recitatif” by Toni Morrison: A Rhetorical Analysis. 8 Jan. 2025, awordfromwillow.blogspot.com/2024/12/recitatif-by-toni-morrison-rhetorical.html?m=1.

“Plessy V. Ferguson (1896).” National Archives, 8 Feb. 2022, www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/plessy-v-ferguson.

Sandon, Joy E., "Passing in American Culture" (2016). English . 1. https://scholarship.rollins.edu/honors-in-the-major-english/1