Nella Larson’s Passing deals with the idea of racial identity and the conflicts that come with it. The novel follows two African-American women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, who are both able to “pass” as white women. While Clare lives most of her life “passing,” Irene chooses to live proudly as a colored woman only choosing to “pass” to go to restaurants, get show tickets, etc. By the end of the book, it is unclear to the reader who really is the more admirable character but we seem to align with Irene more than Clare due to many different factors.
Clare renounces her race in order to marry a white man and live a rich and lavish life. She lives her life in fear of being found out by her husband and uses Irene to become closer to her race while still being separate from it. She tries to have both her white life and her African-American life but is ultimately unable able to keep them secret from each other. She is punished for her acts when she is pushed off the ledge by Irene towards the end of the story.
Although we may sympathize with Clare saying that she did not deserve to die for her acts, we can’t help but side with Irene throughout the whole story. Since we see Clare through the point of view of Irene mostly, we think that Clare is annoying and unfaithful to her race. We sympathize with Irene because she faces turmoil that drives her crazy after seeing Clare again in Chicago. Before meeting Clare again, she dedicated her life to her family and to her community. Unlike Clare, her children are her first priority and she has earned respect from various people. Clare went about her life in a manner that was way too risky. It seems like something was bound to happen to stop this all and her death absolutely did the trick. Although the reader can agree that pushing Clare off the ledge is a horrible thing, we can’t help but admire Irene for doing whatever it takes to keep her family in check and her race in check.
