Nella Larsen’s “Passing” is named so in reference to the concept that one may “pass” as a race that is not their own. From the first part of the novel, we understand that several of the women introduced are either passing all the time (such as with Clare), or have the ability to (such as with Irene in the Drayton). While all of these women are black in ancestry, their skin is pale enough to pass as white, and therefore they can disguise themselves as a part of privileged society at a time when African-Americans were still segregated.
Larsen’s time to be writing this is especially interesting, as she is writing as one of the voices of the Harlem Renaissance, an artistic movement that celebrated black culture and resounded throughout the nation. An analysis of Larsen’s own life while writing “Passing” lends insight to where her sympathies lie with the very different characters that she has introduced. Even before this movement, a literary trope known as the “tragic mulatto” has faced society with the question of mixed raced people, while this character does not necessarily fit in with the white or black communities that society has segregated its collective people into. Larsen, herself, is of Afro-Caribbean and Danish descent, making her of mixed race and able to pass as white if she so chooses. Growing up, she was not tied to any black community, much of whom were in the South while she was being raised up north and her first marriage was to a Danish man (although he knew of her own heritage). Only in adulthood when she took up secondary education did Larsen feel a part of a black community, opting to go to a black university. Given Larsen’s own struggle to fit into a specific community when her heritage is at such odds, its understandable where her character, Irene’s ambiguous reception of Clare comes from. Of course, she has made herself a part of a black community and raised a black family, and while she’s angered the racism she does not out Clare, understanding the danger of what they are in this society.
After her second marriage, Larsen moved to New York and away from Harlem, ditching much of her life and community from then. Old acquaintances assumed she moved there in order to pass, like her characters in her novel did. “Passing” is told from largely the perspective of Irene, who does not decide to pass all the time but seems to hold curiosity and resentment toward her friend Clare who does. Irene is likely the character Larsen based most of herself on and, where conscious of it or not, showed her own ambiguous relationship with embracing her heritage which maybe led her to start over as passing later in life.
Great connection of Laresen’s own biographical background to that of her protagonist Clare, especially as it informs Irene’s suspicion of the latter. If the central aspect of this post is Laresen’s biography, though, it’s important to have a clear source behind this–ideally a piece of scholarship or formal biography.