COSTS AND BENEFITS OF PASSING
Passing subverts the conventional concept of racial, ethnic, and gender integrity, restructuring the very meaning of race. Racial difference is a topic that is heavily loured in ambiguity, controversy, and subjectivity. Nella Larsen’s Passing does not convey the sense that readers usually infer, but with its plot unfolding in the 1920’s background, it becomes explicit. Passing means a member of a certain race being accepted in another race and enjoys their privileges (Larsen 68).
The main characters Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry in Passing, enjoy white privileges while they keep their black heritage as a secret. Irene’s light-skinned features enable her to participate in matters that black women are not allowed like eating at Dayton hotel, while Clare’s husband doesn’t know that she is black (Larsen 81). Clare, being married to a white husband, exposes her to a whole new world that she denies her black heritage and greedily embraces the white entitlement; this poses a significant risk to her friendship with Irene.
The postulation of Passing has emotional and peripheral consequences. Although Clare enjoys white privileges, she finds it hard to be truthful to herself or her family members, embracing her being black, which destroys her real identity over time, even without her knowledge. Passing in this context might also be viewed as the Passing away of Clare at the end of the novel. This concludes that although Passing was considered as an advantage, it bore its costs.
Costs and benefits
Passing was superficial and kept the person worried and at the risk of being alienated. Towards the end of Nella Larsen’s Passing, Irene Redfield conceptualizes how Clare Kendry’s husband might react on the discovery that his beautiful wife was black. What if he decides to divorce her friend Clare? There was the 1925 Rhinelander’s case (Larsen 156). This case illustrated that what was thought to be a contemporary issue was a deep-rooted problem of how Americans categorized mixed race in the 1920s (Thaggert 16).
Leonard Rhinelander married Alice Jones in a fun-filled wedding in 1924. A year later, in 1925, Rhinelander filed for divorce on the grounds of racial fraud. He claimed that if he had known Alice was black, he would not have married her. After a lengthy process, the court jury ruled in favor of Alice. They agreed that she couldn’t hide her race, as it was visibly apparent. This unearthed that racial discrimination was not only due to skin color, but it was more profound to one’s birth parents or ethnicity (Youman 64). Although the Rhinelander verdict did not recognize the existence of the middle race, the novel acknowledges it. This depicts that Passing was a temporal solution to enjoying privileges but not permanent.
The benefit of this was that the passing person was able to enjoy all the privileges. Clare used to enjoy the fine things like dining in good hotels, dressing well, and having freedom offered to the whites. Her white was so dominant that the husband could not know she was black for a long time, affording her to live an upper-class life. Alice also is favored by the court as they explain that her physicality was evident, and thus, she didn’t commit fraud or lie to Rhinelander.
Passing has been a critical factor in jealousy, intrigue, and psychological ambiguity. This has been the ill fate of the mulatto. Nella Larsen’s Passing has been described as portraying the tragic predicament of the mulatto. Collier edition of 1971 refers to the novel as “the tragic story of a beautiful light-skinned mulatto passing for a white in high society” (Tate 13). Although Clare’s life is comfortable, interacting with the high class and full of glam, fate befalls her when her husband discovers that she is black.
One day, she heads to a black society gathering, and Bellew, the husband, follows her. After discovering she is black, an outburst ensues between them, and under mysterious circumstances, Clare falls to her death through an open window, bringing the story to an untimely end. Claudia Tate, in her book, A Problem of Interpretation, explains that Larsen’s Passing is not filled with social pretentiousness as some critics portray it but have an intentional real-life stylistic way (Tate 58). She retorts that Passing matches up to the stereotype of the tragic mulatto. However, Passing is inadequate as mulatto is meant to be a person who passes and later agonizes for forsaking their real identity.
The best of a mulatto is that they were treated as whites in a low-key society that are depending on how dominant their white features were. Since most blacks were slaves back then, having freedom was an immense privilege which some of the mulattos experienced. Some mulattos were even able to mingle with whites and not be noticed as they quickly got assimilated.
Passing makes it hard for one to express themselves. Judith Butler sheds light on sexual Passing in her book Passing, Queering: Nella Larsen’s Psychoanalytic Challenge. Butler voices that it is essential to observe how areas of sexuality and gender intersect (Butler45). Butler connects this case with Nella Larsen’s novel, passing; she focuses on the scene where Irene walks downstairs and finds Clare being checked out by Irene’s husband, Brian. Butler retorts that Irene finds Clare to be beautiful while at the same time thinking that Brian finds Clare to be beautiful. There seems to be confusion on who finds Clare attractive, and there is a possibility that Irene found her beautiful but would not say, for fear of being labeled homosexual. This is one place that Irene finds it rather hard to express her feelings (Butler 168).
This situation’s benefits are that Irene would easily hang out with Clare and enjoy her company without being connotated as a homosexual. They did spend a lot of time together in public gatherings and even visiting each other at home. Their friendship was mutual, and they were fond of each other. This allowed her to enjoy all other privileges apart from sex and express herself fully to Clare.
Conclusion
In conclusion, although passing allowed the middle race people to enjoy the whites’ privileges, it came with its costs too. From Nella Larsen’s Passing, it is evident that Clare enjoyed all the best things that whites had to offer and even had a white husband. This led Irene to be jealous of her since Clare had embraced the white mentality. Irene even suspected Clare of having an affair with her husband.
However, when Clare’s husband discovers her race, things turn around, they ensue into a heated debate, and she falls to her death through an open window. Butler also expresses sexual Passing, where she notes that Irene admired Clare and was jealous of her, but she would not declare her feelings in fear of being called homosexual.
References
Baldwin, Kate. “The Recurring Conditions of Nella Larsen’s Passing.” The Norton Critical Edition
of Passing. Norton, 2007.
Butler, Judith. “Passing, Queering.” Female subjects in black and white: Race, psychoanalysis,
feminism (1997): 266.
Larsen, Nella. “Passing. 1929.” Larsen, Quicksand, and Passing (1986): 143-202.
Tate, Claudia. “Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Problem of Interpretation.” Black American Literature
Forum. School of Education, Indiana State University, 1980.
Thaggert, Miriam. “Racial Etiquette: Nella Larsen’s” Passing and the Rhinelander Case”.”
Meridians 5.2 (2005): 1-29.
Youman, Mary Mabel. “NELLA LARSEN’S” PASSING”: A STUDY IN IRONY.” CLA Journal
18.2 (1974): 235-241.