According to Landry, Nella Larsen wrote Passing to furtively cover a subject that was more taboo than the racial issues of the early twentieth century. Specifically the issues that mulatto women faced when assimilating into the white world without self-identifying. Landry states that it was safe for Nella Larsen to write a story about the subject of the mulatto women while interweaving a love affair between two women. Landry argues that “ women of mixed ethnicity fear being defined by other African Americans as race traitors if they resist sexual and gender norms”(26) and that the direct consequence of defying the social norms of the era would be self-loathing and blame. Landry goes on to explain that the negative feelings toward their selves
Homer Plessy was a brave man willing to stand up against southern Jim Crow laws, and that is fate in the Supreme Court is unfair. The Separate Car Act dictates that separate races must sit in separate cars, which is segregatory, and passed by the state of Louisiana. This is in direct violation of the 14th, and rightfully deserved to be challenged. African Americans everywhere should be able to use their rights earned by four long years of bloodshed, and not be dampened by the courts. But the court overlooked the fact that it was an state law, and not private policy, and deemed the segregation private and thus legal.
The novel Passing, by Nella Larsen, is all about relationships; the relationships make it the great book it is. Think Irene and Clare. Irene and her race. Irene and her own self identity. However, one that often seems to be overlooked is her relationship with her husband Brian.
The South, home to most African Americans in that time, sought out ways to legally exclude African Americans. Homer Plessy had decided to test new segregation laws that had been passed a year earlier. A few months prior, Daniel Desdunes had also sat in the whites-only section, and his case had never made it to trial. However, in Plessy’s case, the Supreme Court was able to rule the new laws constitutional in a seven to one decision; “separate but equal” would be completely legal if both sections are equal.
In Nella Larsen’s Passing, Irene Redfield, the central character of the book, spends a lot of time near windows. Windows are found throughout the book, and they are a place where Irene and Clare are able to reflect upon their emotions. Irene expresses a range of emotions throughout the duration of the novel. At the beginning of the novel, Irene’s demeanor is calm, but at the end of the book, she is more reckless emotionally. Depending on the circumstances in which Irene is looking out of a window, we are able to determine her emotional state at that point in time.
When Homer Adolph Plessy, who was one-eighth black, tested this law by taking a seat in the white-only section of a Louisiana Railway train, he was arrested. Plessy contended that the segregation law violated his rights under the Fourteenth Amendment (Newton, 2006). The case was appealed up to the U.S., Supreme Court in 1896. The Court ruled in a 7 – 1 vote upholding the Louisiana Statute, although associate justice John Marshall Harlan wrote a dissenting opinion. In his dissent, he wrote that “Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens…
Plessy vs. Ferguson, one of the bigger cases in the turning point for rights, gave the black community a big boost forward. There was a man named Homer Adoph Plessy that had a problem with the way things were going at the time and he wanted equal rights. But there was another man named John Ferguson who thought that everything was just skippy. They went to court to settle their quarrel.
“You can’t escape what you are.” Ms. Mary Louise Downing repeated this statement multiple times during our conversation. Ms. Downing battled raising a daughter in the 1950’s. Her struggle came only partially because of her finances. She quoted that she had skin complexion “dark as midnight”, while her daughter’s complexion was “bright enough to out shine the stars.”
For nearly a century, the United States was occupied by the racial segregation of black and white people. The constitutionality of this “separation of humans into racial or other ethnic groups in daily life” had not been decided until a deliberate provocation to the law was made. The goal of this test was to have a mulatto, someone of mixed blood, defy the segregated train car law and raise a dispute on the fairness of being categorized as colored or not. This test went down in history as Plessy v. Ferguson, a planned challenge to the law during a period ruled by Jim Crow laws and the idea of “separate but equal” without equality for African Americans. This challenge forced the Supreme Court to rule on the constitutionality of segregation, and in result of the case, caused the nation to have split opinions of support and
In the story, Irene felt that “He was discontented, yet there were times when she felt he was possessed of some intense secret satisfaction,”. (pt.3) This quote conveys the idea that Irene is starting to become suspicious of Brian, because the part where she says “ he was discontented’ gives it away that Brian is not happy anymore. Whenever a man feels this way with their wife and has been seeing other women, it is because they don’t feel the same tension that the guy feels with his new women. It is ironic how in the story, Irene’s husband, Brian, is cheating on her, similar to Larsen’s situation where her husband had an affair with one of the staff where he
When Push Comes to Shove Would you kill your oldest friend if she was a threat to your marriage and possibly life as a whole? Well, for Irene Redfield the answer is clear. Set in the 1920’s, Nella Larsen’s Passing is a gripping novel following the lives of Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, two ferocious women who would do anything to get what they desire. When Clare ‘falls’ out of a window, the question arises, did Irene murder Clare? Larsen’s portrayal of Irene begins to unravel due to her insecurities about her marriage and distrust of Clare.
Racism was always a big issue and still occurs today. The story “Passing” took place in the 1920’s during the Harlem Renaissance and it spoke about the term “Passing” which indicates that African American’s who looked lighted skin can go to public places without being discriminated. In “Passing” Nella Larsen demonstrates how racism causes jealousy, resentment, and dishonesty in relationships. The idea is conveyed through inner conflict, the conflict between the main characters and how the Harlem Renaissance period inflicts tension in relationships.
It is often said that a new definition of a woman arose in the 1920s. But is that true? While most women experienced many newfound freedoms in the 1920s, black women could not explore these freedoms as easily as white women. In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry grew up in Chicago together and are now both two wives and mothers in New York City during the 1920s, but there is a big difference between them. The novel’s title refers to light-skinned black women masquerading as white women for social benefits.
1920’s society offered a prominent way for blacks that look white to exploit its barrier and pass in society. Visible within Nella Larsen’s Passing, access to the regular world exists only for those who fit the criteria of white skin and white husband. Through internal conflict and characterization, the novella reveals deception slowly devours the deceitful. In Passing, Clare and Irene both deceive people. They both engage in deceit by having the ability to pass when they are not of the proper race to do so.
In Passing by Nella Larsen, Irene Redfield, who is an African American descent takes advantage of her light skin color even though she doesn’t directly pass, which reveals the truth that the society is distinguishing people based on their races. After Irene witnesses a misfortune of a man lying in the street. she asks the cab driver to take her somewhere for tea since she’s not feeling well, which takes her to a hotel that serves only white people. Without indicating anything about her race, Irene successfully gets into the hotel where she meets Clare, who she has not met with for twelve years. As a result, when Clare is watching Irene for a long time and trying to recognize her, Irene connects it to her ethnic identity instead of identifying
