Passing: Close Reading

You Ken Tan Christopher Hennessy LI 208 U. S. Multicultural lit 26 Feb 2013 enactment An Analysis and Close reading Nella Larsens Passing is a story ab come out the tragedy of an African American woman, Clare Kendry, who seek to pass in the white American community. However, while she passes as white, she continuously seeks comfort from her friend Irene Redfield who is a representation of the African American community. Gradually, Clare has fabricate the double interpret of Irene, due to the similarities of their ethnicity and the contrasting lives they lead.At the end of the story, Clares finale is a result of the extreme burden on Irenes lift due to the presence of Clare in her animateness. The death of Clare is very much Irenes responsibility based upon her suspicious acts at the end of the story. The ending of Passing, and of the smell of Clare Kendry, begins on the sixth floor of an apartment complex at a party in the home of Felise and Dave Freeland. During the party, Irene says that, It seems dreadfully warm in here. take heed if I open this windowpane? (Larsen 110) However, when Irene opens the window, It had stopped snowing some two or three hours back (Larsen 110).This means that the weather is still rather frosty and despite the freezing temperature, Irene still sits beside the window. A nonher reason why Irene would involve to open the window is because she wants to smoke her cigar. She politely uses the warm temperature in the fashion as her excuse to open the window. Although this action may seem commonsensical today, during the 1930s, on that point was no tender etiquette that required opening a window to smoke. The fact that Irene stays by the window afterward her smoke makes us question exactly what keeps her warm perhaps it is her anger and rage towards Clare.Later when Irene finishes her cigar, she throws it out and watches the tiny spark drop slowly d bear to the white underseal below (Larsen 110). To Irene, the sense of locomote is either giving her an inspiration for her actions against Clare or a practice run before the real deal. In addition, the haping cigar sparks are being described in a very picturesque manner. Tiny spark drop gives us the sense of something small lower and shiny which moves in a relatively stable winter communication channel mass. The small shiny bits of cigar also contrasts with the twinkle stars in the clear ky after the snow stops. The action of slowly down is a romanticized version of the go flakes. As Irene focuses on the falling flakes, she is also picturing the falling of Clare in a very calm and elegant way as if Clares fate is justified and beautiful. The separating flakes from the cigar also resemble the feeling of things falling apart. As Irene observes the flakes flying away, she sees Clares life being dismantled. In the next scene, Clares husband, John Bellew storms into the party after he found out that Clare is very black and starts to burst out in ra ge.In the midst of the confrontation, Felise says, Careful. Youre the solely white man here (Larsen 111). Felise is stating that John is the only white psyche in the room, and she does not acknowledge Clare as being white. Although Clare has passed, they do not treat Clare as a white person or an outlander and would not hesitate to help her when she needs them. This demonstrates the strong unity of African American community and one cannot truly be passed and separated from the starting measure or background he or she comes from. During the confrontation, Irene has a public opinion in her mind, One thought possessed her.She couldnt have Clare Kendry cast deflection by Bellew. She couldnt have her free (Larsen 111). Irene is disgust by the thought of Bellew casting Clare away because this would be a great insult to Irenes life. At the same time, this may be the end of Irenes life as a white person. She would have to return to who she was before black, short(p) and alone. In ad dition, this would also be an insult to the lives of people in the African American community who are always oppressed and marginalized by the consent the whites.Besides, Irene would not want to set Clare free from Bellew because this would pose a bigger threat to Irenes life and family. In the middle of the story, there is a mutual attraction mingled with Clare and Irenes husband, Brian Redfield, and Irene suspects that Brian is having a love conflict with Clare. This internal conflict might explain the following scene, which is also Irenes solution to end all of this by ending Clares life. What happened next, Irene Redfield never afterwards allowed herself to remember (Larsen 111).All the reader is informed of is that one moment Clare had been there, a vital glowing thing, like a flame of red and fortunate and the next she was gone (Larsen 111). What is made clear in these descriptions of Clares fall is that it is in some sense out of her own control the payoff just happens with no clear explanation. But again this provides a pregnant parallel with the get-go of this work as shown in the beginning of the story, a man toppled over and became an inert crumpled heap on the heat cement (12).Once again someone collapses onto a public street and their falling is hidden in ambivalentty. While the cause of the mans falling is unknown to Irene because she quickly flees the scene, the reason for Clares falling being uncertain is because Irene immediately represses this memory. Here, one might argue that in both the beginning and the end of this text the cause of falling is unknown to Irene because she willfully choses to renounce this knowledge, either by rushing away or repression. The connection between the beginning and the end is also reinforced by a syntactic similarity.Additionally, in the beginning of this novel we discover what small breeze there was seemed like a breath of a flame fanned by slow bawl (Larsen 12). These same images are revisited in the conclusion. At the time of her fall, Clare is a flame of red and gold (Larsen 111) with an furious John Bellew lurching towards her. non only does her approaching husbands name resemble the countersignature bellow, but also at the party he actually bellows to Clare So youre a damned dirty nigger( Larsen 111). Thus, in both the beginning and end of Passing, we find an imagery of bellows pitiable towards a flame.In Passing, Clare and Irene are doubles for each other in twofold aspects. The fundamental connection between them is that their roots are from the same racial, social and gender groups. As readers, we are eager to find out why Irene tries to avoid Clare throughout Passing and what is the fear Clare poses upon Irene. One reason for this is that the unending appearance of Clare in Irenes life serves as a changeless reminder for Irenes self. Since they are mirror images of each other, Irene sees herself in Clare in an eerie way.Through Irenes lens, Clare lives a life she can only image but never engage. It becomes a scary thought for Irene that someone so similar to herself can transform to carry a different identity element on the surface. The aeonian comparison of Clare and Irene has forced Irene to raise questions about her own life. The recurring uncanny doubling effect from Clare presents such a constant pressure on Irene that only death can resolve this conflict. whole caboodle Cited Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York Penguin Books, 2003.