Nella Larsen’s Passing gets its title from the practice of passing, which is defined by an article from Time as “identifying with and presenting oneself as one race while denying ancestry of another.” In the novel, Clare Kendry has “passed” by disguising her African American heritage, which is successful due to her light skin color.
In one moment that struck me as particularly significant, the narrator, Irene Redfield, is visiting with Clare Kendry and Gertrude Martin, who are both childhood friends. Clare’s husband, John comes home and though he isn’t aware of the small percentage of African American blood that runs through her veins, he greets her by saying, “Hello, Nig” (39). There is a moment, suspended, of unease immediately following his entrance. Gertrude “looks covertly towards Irene, who caught her lip between her teeth and sat gazing at husband and wife,” and this body language reveals the discomfort and confusion of the two guests. But, “In Clare’s eyes… was a queer gleam, a jeer…” which divulges that she doesn’t share in their bafflement, but instead appears to be in control of the seemingly precarious situation which is unfolding before her (39). When John explains that this is actually because Clare is getting more and more tan, and jokes that “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” (39). His lighthearted use of a completely disgraceful term and his outright disgust about colored people, which is expressed later in the scene when he says “I don’t dislike then. I hate them,” shocked me just as much as it did Irene (40). It told me that John, other than being a shameless racist, also has no idea that his wife has any African American ancestry. I thought this was extremely important as it speaks to the themes of the text, such as the extreme racial tensions in the earlier part of the twentieth century, and to what lengths people will go to hide their identity so long as it increases their autonomy.
A very important part of book one of Passing is how race is perceived by others. In chapter two, when Irene is sitting on the roof of the Drayton enjoying a glass of iced tea, she notices Clare staring at her. Before she recognizes the other woman, Irene worries that Clare has noticed that Irene is a Negro. She thinks, “It wasn’t that she was ashamed of being a Negro, or even of having it declared. It was the idea of being ejected from any place… that disturbed her” (16). While this train of thought doesn’t explicitly state that Irene wishes she were not at all black, it is implied through her buried fears that she recognizes that it would make her life much easier. The choice to “pass,” made by Clare, leaves Irene feeling “incredulous” and though she remains “disdainful” overall of Clare’s choice (25, 28). Irene has convinced herself that passing is synonymous with pretending, and that denying one’s identity is not worth whatever freedom it establishes.
With this background in mind, the reaction to John’s explanation of calling his wife “Nig” struck me as quite peculiar. John and Clare laugh freely, and Gertrude joins in after an “uneasy shift in her seat,” proving that she is extremely uncomfortable, even if her reaction attempts to cover it up (39). Irene “called out: ‘That’s good!’ and gave way to gales of laughter… She laughed on and on, long after the others had subsided” (40). Her reaction is an overcompensation, and specifically the word ‘gales’ to describe her laughter shows that it comes bursting unnaturally out of her. Her laughter stops suddenly, after “catching sight of Clare’s face…” which reveals to her “the need for a more quiet enjoyment of this priceless joke, and for caution, struck her” (40). The use of the word ‘caution’ adds a degree of danger to a scene which, on the surface, is a carefree gathering between old friends. But, the subtle body language employed by the characters other than John and the rhetorical language used by Larsen reveals the precariousness of Clare’s situation and the potential consequences of her “passing.”
Great attention to the complex ways in which race is perceived by others–that’s a key, and perhaps the central, theme in this book. It’s all about race, and then racialized relationships, and racialized spaces. In this clearly “white” space of the Drayton hotel, you offer a great reflection on Irene’s discomfort at being so carefully watched. Her movements–smoothing her dress, etc.–are proceed even as thoughts emerge about whether others are perceiving her true racial identity. There’s is such an intensity to the intricately infolded thoughts of these characters–how much more complex their understanding is of everything in this white space, and how comparatively flat and binary Jack’s world is. The laughing scene that you focus on in the end is striking. There’s an pause driven by disgust and anger, and then, as you not, a “gale” of laughter as though the absurdity of it all overtakes her. A very striking scene–thanks for walking us through it!