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Racial identity is a concept that is heavily clouded in ambiguity, subjectivity, and controversy. How an individual chooses to identify within a racial group versus what racial category society places upon him or her can either vary drastically between each other or match exactly. Regardless of the result, determining race is neither an exact science nor a definitive choice. In Nella Larsen’s Passing, the idea of “passing”, both in the literal and figurative sense of the word, highlights the fluidity and complexity of racial classification. The protagonists Irene Redfield and Claire Kendry continually struggle with the disparity between their physical appearance and their mixed racial heritage.

In terms of the figurative meaning of the term, “passing” refers to the notion of physically being able to classify as a certain race though on the contrary socially. This idea of “passing” as a certain race carries a multitude of socio-economic advantages and disadvantages that affect how an individual perceived by society and reflect various social interactions with different racial groups. In the case of Clare, she is initially able to pass as white, allowing her to avoid racial discrimination upon black people and acquire an elitist social status in Europe. Clare’s ability to be identified as white affords her a higher class ranking amongst the darker-skinned Harlemites in New York; she is indirectly assimilated into white culture through her marriage to her white husband, Jack. That being said, Larsen makes it known that although one may pass as another race, that does not ostracize them from the culture and heritage of their predominant race(s). This is seen in Clare’ insistence in participating in the Negro Welfare League’s dance, even at the dismay of Irene. Even through her acceptance as a white woman by the white community, Clare still feels the need to connect with her black roots and embrace the culture and community that she strongly identifies with. Her resistance against total assimilation into white culture further displays the ongoing battle of balancing multiple racial identities. Larsen shows that a mixed heritage complicates how a mixed individual perceives and interacts with the cultures that embody his or herself. Both Clare and Irene both struggle with bridging the gap between the two identities and it is further strained by Jack’s realization of their true racial origins and his retaliation at Clare’s deception.

On the other hand, Larsen also analyzes the literal means of “passing” and how each woman seems to only be “passing on” in their lives. Clare is painted as a transient character because she is forced to conform behind this second identity that she has inadvertently created for herself. She is not able to fully commit to either black or white and she is unsuccessful in finding a happy medium between the two categories, so in these ways Clare is only passing by in her life and her relationships with others. In Part I of the novel, Clare is painted as a rather passive character, choosing to hide her black identity from her husband in order to salvage both her marriage and the future of her daughter where as in Part II Clare is more upfront about what she wants in her life and how she chooses to interact with other social groups. Furthermore, the idea of passing also applies to Irene’s character development within the novel as she counter Clare’s racial indecisiveness by choosing to embrace her black heritage; even choosing to remove herself from Clare because of how Clare hides her actual race. Irene passes Clare in how she sees herself in the world, as Irene is confident in her identity as a black woman and distances herself from Clare because of the danger in Clare’s passing for a white woman.

In both the literal and figurative sense of the term, passing brings to mind the question of how fluid can race be and whether or not race is more heavily rooted in biology or in sociology. Especially in a modern-day era of liberalism, self-identification and surpassing typical norms is becoming ever more present within this current generation (racially, sexually, religiously, etc.). Racial passing is something that most if not all racially mixed individuals encounter on a day-to-day basis and Larsen strives to point out that what may appear on the surface may not reflect what is really happening internally.

Passing by Nella Larsen is a novel that leaves the reader in conflict with his/herself by the end of the story. It introduces us to the life of two African American women who choose to represent their identities in two different ways. Both Irene and Clare have lighter skin so that they aren’t really always identifiable as colored women. Clare uses this physical characteristic of hers to “pass” as a white woman. This way she marries a rich man and lives the rich and lavish life she always dreamed of but through betraying her own people. Irene doesn’t choose to “pass” instead she lives life proud to be a colored woman and is able to marry a doctor and give herself a rich life living in a home with housekeeper and organizing social events with well known authors up in Harlem. By the end even though Irene kills Clare out of jealousy, we still can’t help but sympathize for her and respect her more.

Clare’s character doesn’t show much substance like Irene’s does. She believes only in the superficial aspects in life, and uses her beauty and flirtation to get people to like her. Even people that know she’s lying to her family about being white, such as Brian, end up liking her. She seduces those around her and makes it seem as if she is a victim in her marriage, even though it was her choice to pass and lie about it. Irene on the other hand has made a life for herself while staying true to her identity. She has worked hard to keep her family together and has earned respect throughout her community. She doesn’t need to lie everyday about who she is, she doesn’t betray her own people like Clare. And even when she kills Clare in the end, part of us feels as though Clare had it coming, that Irene once again did what she had to in order to maintain her family. Even though in reality Irene acts selfish and jealous it’s easier to admire her character over Clare’s because we know her choices in the past are more respectable than Clare’s.

Just as we’ve seen in The Godfather, an author’s or director’s point of view really affects the way we interpret the characters. Even though the novel is written in third person, it follows the life of Irene as the main character. Clare is the one who manipulates Irene to enter her life and in a way secretly live the life Irene built for herself. We know that eventually Clare’s lies are going to get to her. We do not expect Irene to change so drastically but once again it is easily to put the blame on Clare. Larsen leaves me in conflict with myself over who deserves my sympathy, the girl who just died, the one who’s life was saved by this death, or neither?

By looking through my journals I can see the growth in my writing. In the beginning my journals were more focused on just answering the prompt. It felt more like essay writing than journal writing. As the semester has passed, I have learned that journal writing is meant for me to branch out my ideas on the topic, that it doesn’t have to be so focused on the prompt. I learned that the prompt is there to give me ideas on what to write about so that I can explore my interpretation of the reading or the film. I like that my writing really does show my flow of thoughts and I like that as I write my journals I figure out new meanings behind symbols and certain elements that I originally didn’t know or didn’t have the intention of writing about. What I don’t like about it is that to me it feels like its simple writing, I don’t necessarily support all my claims sufficiently, sometimes I just move on to another topic which is a bad habit for when it comes to formal essay writing.

Since journal writing is my only experience with informal writing for a class it has helped me become a better writer by making me more confident with my writing. Before, I viewed writing as something I had to do in order to get through the class, I only wrote to pass the assignments. This meant my writing was very focused. It was mainly planned out essays in which I put a lot of thought and took time writing and revising and editing. Because of the long process of writing I always dreaded doing it. However, writing journals has opened up a whole different side of writing for me. These journals aren’t simply assignments they’re expressions of my thoughts and opinions on what I just read or saw. They let me write more freely without the worry of structure, or answering a thesis. My ideas can flow between topics and this lets me understand the reading more or appreciate the film more. This is why I enjoy writing journals. I can write without the worry of a grade or of getting off topic. Writing is created to help us express our thoughts on paper and now I can truly appreciate that and my thoughts.

Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry are truly complex characters in the Nella Larson’s Passing. The point of view in this novel, third person, also adds to the complexity/confusion. However, the point of view does focus more on Irene and how she is feeling, what she is thinking and what she is doing from day to day. This point of view still does not make it easy to understand what the characters are thinking.

In terms of sympathizing for one character more than the other, this is also hard. Irene seems like she is the more caring and loving one as she stays true to her race and identity which can cause one to sympathize her but the ending kind of turns what we interpret of Irene’s character. Is Irene deserving of our sympathy? Also, Irene is extremely judgmental; she judges all of Clare’s actions very harshly, she criticizes Gertrude, in a way, because she has married a white man over a man of her own race, she is also constantly talking negatively about her husband. She says that her husband does not care for his sick patients and also their relationship seems to be a problem because of Irene’s attitude. As readers, we do not see any romantic connection between Irene and her husband and this hints at a romantic relationship with Clare because they are often talking about each theory in a subtle but sexual way. However, this does not make Irene a caring or loving character. Also, during the dance, we can sense that Irene is jealous of the fact that everyone seems to love Clare and enjoy her company. Irene is just an overall, harsh, judgmental and jealous character in the novel. This judgement is made way before we become suspicious, as readers, that she may have caused Clare’s death. Also, Irene cannot seem to say no to Clare about anything which is not very admirable. This is also confusing because is Irene doing this because she is sympathetic towards Clare’s situation or something else?

On the other hard, the reader sort of sympathizes for Clare because of her tough situation and her ‘loneliness” that is brought up more than once in the novel. Clare chooses this life of lying and hiding from her personal identity. Clare, however, comes from an extremely difficult past. Her father dying, and her aunts mistreating her, these are all reasons that Clare is the way she is. One’s past ultimately affects their future forever. Clare’s past, along with her loneliness. has a great affect on how the reader views Clare. We see that Clare is lying about her race and identity but she still has a longing for her “black” side. Clare is always wanting to join Irene in gatherings, dances and other occasions to get to see people from her past that are of the same race and reconnect with them. Most of these actions make Clare look caring and genuine in her actions. The reader feels sympathy for Clare when Clare is telling Irene that she is the safer, wiser, and happier one. This leads the reader to believe that Clare still cares about her race and wishes she could get away from this life of lies. Clare gets a horrible, unexpected ending as she is pushed out of a window by one of the characters. Irene was jealous of Clare and this made the readers feel that Clare did not care about Irene’s feelings because she was suspected of getting close to Irene’s husband.

All these internal conflicts put together do not lead us to believe that Irene or Clare are very sympathetic/admirable at all. However, because of Clare’s past and consistent behavior, I would have to say that she is a little more sympathized but not sympathetic. Also, because Irene and Clare both made questionable decisions, I do not believe any of them are admirable. The only thing that is admirable about Irene is her connection with her true identity/race even though she may or may not have killed Clare.

After reading Passing, I can definitely sympathize more with Irene. Clare admits herself that she is manipulative and selfish. She seduces Irene on several instances and takes advantage of the fact that Irene is genuinely trying to help her simply because they share the same race. I cannot sympathize with Clare because she chose to live her life as a white woman, but relies on her black ties to get her through life. If she truly wanted to be among Irene and Gertrude, why didn’t she remain a part of their culture? She had a welcoming community that would accept her, but she chose to outcast herself for someone who didn’t even know her true self. Even after choosing to leave the community, she expects Irene to be loyal to her.

The ending of the book is unclear. I could not make out the cause of Clare’s death. Did she fall out of the window intentionally because she couldn’t face Jack after he knew the truth? Did Irene feel so threatened by her that she pushed Clare out the window herself? If Irene did push Clare, then I might change my stance on who is character more deserving of sympathy. However, if Clare brought her death upon herself, she should have known the risk she was putting herself in. If she didn’t, Irene told her on several occasions that she was playing with fire by not telling Jack of her race before marrying him.

Clare not only lied to her husband, but she betrayed her one and only true friend. By cheating on Jack with Irene’s husband, Brian, she provoked Irene’s bad side to reveal itself. When Clare threatened Irene’s family and her marriage, Irene had to put an end to Clare’s manipulations. Despite Irene’s genuine efforts to be friendly with her old classmate, Clare never respected Irene’s feelings or her person.

So far I’ve really enjoyed the topics of our journals. They really help me understand and think more deeply about the material we cover in the class. Usually when I write journals I just sit and write them at once, not really taking  breaks. My ideas sort of flow from the prompt and I write down the thoughts that come to mind. The summary journals are an exception; I usually read the piece a few paragraphs at a time and pause to summarize each section I read. One thing I like about my journals is that they flow pretty well. They are also fairly easy to follow despite not having an outline or anything done beforehand. One thing I dislike is that sometimes I feel that I don’t take my time to really separate my thoughts so some ideas get mixed together. Note taking is very different than journaling because when I take notes, I’m mostly trying to take down as much important information as fast as possible, while journaling doesn’t have a time constraint. Journaling also involves coming up with your own ideas, which note taking does not. Overall I like writing journals because even though they could be hard to get through sometimes, in the end they really do help me understand the material in new ways and are thought-provoking.

This is the first time I’ve kept a journal and weekly updated it. After I read a good novel or watch a decent movie, I often feel the need to talk about it to someone; I compare journaling to that. Writing out my thoughts satisfies that feeling. Personally, for the most part, I’ve enjoyed the idea writing out fresh thoughts on a piece of work. I’ve learned that it also helps me better understand and retain what I have read.

I do not think journaling is like note-taking. Note-taking is mostly objective writing, based on texts. However, my journal entries express my thoughts over a subject. Note-taking often gets tedious, and is something I get bored of. However, journaling is more interesting because I am expressing my, often very opinionated, thoughts on a topic.

Looking over my journal entries, I noticed some similarities with the way I write. The structure of my writing is mostly the same. Given that this is free-writing, I often do not fix up or change anything after I write it, other than for summaries. The assignments that I dislike the most are the summaries. They tend to be the longest as I often am conflicted with what to leave out. They also feel similar to note-taking and are certainly the most tiresome. The entry I liked the best was the one for Bread Givers, in which we had to compare Sara and her father. I really enjoyed the novel which is why I loved writing about it.

I actually do not like quite a few of the journal entries I’ve written. At some points, many of them seem like texts written on a whim that have not been looked over at all. At other points, it seems as though I was not properly able to create a flow and am jumping from topic to topic. Also, a few of them seem rushed and I know they could have been better written, had I spent more time on them. However, as I write more and more entries, I am getting more used to them and they do seem to be getting better. Overall, although at some points it does just seem to get tedious, I do enjoy journaling.

Journal entry-writing is one scholarly activity that I can’t say I’ve done in years, which is unfortunate because I really enjoy it. I like having the freedom to express whatever I think about something I’ve learned and/or read without the rigid, standardized parameters that I’ve come to expect to be imposed on my writing.

Even though I think my past journal entries for this class are pretty good in that they are fairly comprehensive, accurate reflections of the thoughts that I had while I read a piece of writing or watched a film, they are clearly a little rough around the edges. This is okay with me, though, because I’ve gotten the impression that these journal entries are not meant to be super polished and perfect. I’ve noticed in reading over my journal responses that my introductions and conclusions are kind of weak, if they’re even present in the entry at all, which they aren’t always.

I definitely prefer writing journal entries over taking notes. For one, note-taking is pretty tedious, and it restricts my thinking to one track, whereas writing journal entries allows me to think about the material I’ve been taught in class in a variety of ways rather than just the single way that my professor or textbook conveys the information. I also like writing journal responses because I feel like an actual human being while I’m doing it. Note-taking makes me feel like a robot, always mechanically recording what I see and hear, processing information on an unrelentingly linear, impersonal level. Also, I feel like I learn a lot more through writing journal entries than I ever would through just taking notes. I retain more information because I’ve made personal connections and reactions to the material, and I’ve thought about the material in many ways, giving me greater understanding of what I’ve learned.