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The Model Of Communication In Nella Larsen's Passing

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Nella Larsen’s Passing is a novella about the past experiences of African American women ‘passing’ as whites for equal opportunities. Larsen presents the day to day issues African American women face during their ‘passing’ journey through her characters of Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. During the reading process, we progressively realize ‘passing’ in Harlem, New York during the 1920’s becomes difficult for both of these women physically and mentally as different kinds of challenges approach ahead. Although Larsen decides the novella to be told in a third person narrative, different thoughts and messages of Irene and Clare communicate broken ideas for the reader, causing the interpretation of the novella to vary from different perspectives. Jakobson’s model of communication provides a visual guide to help …show more content…

Roman Jakobson, a structuralist theorist, came up with a map demonstrating how thoughts, ideas, and content get communicated throughout the reading process. To begin, the adresser, the author, sends a message to the addressee, the reader, which contains referential context ready for the addressee to code and then, creates a contact as connections become created through the text and soon, a relationship is made between the two (Parker 335-336). In this case, we can even view this model as a character or narrator being the adresser as they are the ones conveying Larsen’s messages on her behalf. Jakobson’s model of communication helps the reader understand Passing as the story focalizes one character, which would be Irene Redfield, but at the same time, different messages to be sent and implied. Through Irene’s consistent change of indirect and direct discourse, it often leads some readers to have a hard time understanding what is being communicated and come to certain

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