Discussion & Reflection

Both Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry and Nella Larsen’s Passing are novels written in third person limited point of view. Similar to Larsen’s book, Thurman writes so that everything the reader learns comes from Emma Lou Brown’s point of view. The reader gets insight into her thoughts, her actions, and her environment. We get to understand her reasons for doing things, yet nobody else’s. Everything that we learn about the other characters comes from Emma Lou and is seen through her eyes. While this is a beneficial writing style, as it lets us understand and connect to her more, it provides for an unreliable narrative. Like in Passing, we have to accept that everything we read about did not necessarily happen the way Emma Lou sees it or for the reasons Emma Lou thinks. Basically, the reader learns to take everything in the book ‘with a grain of salt,’ as the saying goes.

We can see this narrative established right away in the first few paragraphs of the book. The reader is instantly made aware of Emma Lou’s thoughts, “not that she minded being black, being a Negro necessitated having colored skin, but she did mind being too black” (21). We see Emma Lou thinking of herself and lamenting, but also contradicting her previous statements. The many contradictions she makes through the books all support the unreliable narrative of the book, but are done to show how torn and confused Emma Lou is; when she finds herself unable to relate to lighter skinned Negros but chooses to ignore Hazel and John, when she supports and stays with Alva even though he manipulates her. She is participating in what she, herself is a victim of. Emma Lou looks at herself with self- hatred, while the reader knows that she is overly critical of herself.

Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry tells us the story of a dark skinned African American girl who cannot seem to come to terms with the skin she was born with. Emma Lou the main character of the story grew up in a town where all the people in the black community praised being light skinned. Though having a light skin mother, Emma Lou gets her dark skin from her father’s side, and because of it she is told by her mother and grandmother that she will never make it anywhere in life. That her skin color defines her. Though the story is told through a third person narrator, just like in Passing with the story being told through Irene, the story is mainly told through the eyes and mind of Emma Lou. What makes Emma Lou so unreliable though is the fact that she always contradicts what she says.

Emma Lou has so much hatred for the lighter skin colored people that treat her differently due to her skin, yet she doesn’t like to be associated with any darker skinned people either. Take Hazel for example, she is a dark skinned girl just like Emma Lou, and just like Emma Lou she is starting college looking for friends. But Emma Lou doesn’t want to be Hazel’s friend because of her skin color, and the way she acts, because she doesn’t act “white.” She says, “No wonder people were prejudiced against dark-skin people when they were so ugly, so haphazard in their dress, and so boisterously mannered as was this present specimen,” (p. 17). Emma Lou is in no position to judge Hazel the way she does because she is no different than her.

Another example of Emma Lou being a hypocrite is her ending her relationship with John. When she first moves to Harlem, John is kind enough to help her find a home and show her around. She takes advantage of his kindness and uses him to her advantage. As soon as she finds herself a little more stable she ends their relationship because he is also dark skinned and not good enough for her. Once again she is treating someone unfairly just the way she doesn’t want anyone to treat her.

Furthermore, every time does get respected by someone who is lighter skinned, she believes that that person is just pitying her. With her there is no win win situation, and everything  that happens always comes back down to her skin color. To me she is selfish, contradictory, and a hypocrite and it makes her opinion hard to believe. That is is why she is certainly not a reliable narrator.

In Nella Larsen’s Passing, one of the main characters, Irene, highly influences the tone and subject of narration. The reader begins to look at situations from the point of view of Irene and believe Irene’s speculations because they are the only ones shown to the reader. Only Irene’s thoughts and mental conclusions are captured in the third person narration of the novel. As a result, Irene becomes an unreliable source for narration because her ideas are taken to be the truth, despite the one-sidedness of her ideas. However, in Wallace Thurman’s The Blacker the Berry, the protagonist Emma Lou is anything but unreliable. In The Blacker the Berry, the narrator creates a balance between the truth and Emma Lou’s version of truth due to her extreme color consciousness. As a result, the narrator is able to present Emma Lou’s ideas and pokes holes in her ideas — inevitably, leaving it up to the reader to settle the score.

The narrator neutralizes Emma Lou’s emotional states and color conscious fits in order to get the truth across to the reader. The author allows Emma Lou to spill her ideas but makes her look foolish and delusional in the process using Alva’s character. Alva acts as a neutralizing voice of reason for Emma Lou in the part where she cries and Alva soon leaves her. Emma Lou shares that she was a target at the theater and at the gathering with Alva and his friends because on those occasions, she felt her dark color was being ridiculed. In response, Alva says, “You’re being silly, Emma Lou.” Then Alva points out Emma Lou’s color consciousness and her obsession with “color, color, color,” to the reader and to Emma Lou. Depending on the reader, equal weight can be given to both arguments. The narrator accounts for Emma Lou’s exaggerated ideas that might make her an unreliable character.

Another part that shows Emma Lou’s reliability under similar technique is when she returns home, has a fling with Weldon. Emma Lou shares with the reader her fantasies about making a life with Weldon. Then, the narrator “makes it real” by making the reader aware that Emma Lou has constructed this fantasy world within her mind unaware of other people’s feelings and other elements. It’s the narrator’s way of stepping in and setting it straight for the reader that Emma Lou’s feelings are highly influenced by who she is. After Weldon had to leave Emma Lou to pursue money, Emma Lou once again resorted to color as the issue. The narrator clears up Emma Lou’s distorted thoughts by saying, “It never occurred to her [Emma Lou] that the matter of color never once entered the mind of Weldon.” Once again, the narrator steps in to keep the story straight. The narrator is able to share Emma Lou’s ideas in their entirety and make them reliable by explicitly pointing out the flaws in Emma Lou’s thought processes to the reader. In this way, the reader is well informed of the situation and of Emma Lou’s character and thinking processes. The narrator in Passing failed to do this and as a result made Irene’s account of events the only account and an unreliable one at that.

Emma Lou’s unreliability is similar to Irene’s from Passing in that their allegiance to their race is unreliable. Emma Lou strives endlessly to fit in with the “right sort of people” while in Los Angeles, those who are fair-skinned, well-mannered colored folk, but also ends up taunting herself with those darker than her that could never be blue vein circle material. Her relationship with John in Harlem, for example, is limited to only two nights because he was too dark for Emma Lou, despite all he did to find her a place to live and acquaint her with the area. Although Emma Lou wants to be part of the Negro community that wouldn’t accept her back in Boise, she can only accept the “superior” Negro community in Harlem. Her unreliability to her race is similar to Irene’s in that Irene’s passing for white out of convenience is demonstrative of an air of superiority. As proud as Irene claims to be to be a part and to have remained a part of the Negro community, she still passes for white instead of bearing the burden of her color, which she would do if she were so proud of her roots.

My first association with the word “passing” is passing away or something passing by. After beginning the book however, I soon realized that is referred to passing as white in the highly racist society of the Harlem Renaissance. The two main characters in the novel, Irene and Clare, are half white and half black. They both choose to pass as white in their society so that they can experience the privileges of white people. Although they both share this trait they use it in different ways. Irene still holds on to her black heritage that she grew up with, whereas Clare attempts to full assimilate into white society. Clare goes so far with this that she even lies to her husband about her race.

The other meaning of “passing” does not become apparent until the end of the book. Clare’s death brings new meaning to the word in the context of the book. Passing away is kind of a statement of how she may have gone to far in her attempts to pass as white. She tried to completely disregard the fact that is still half black. That is the fundamental difference between the two women. Irene uses “passing” as a way to move up in society and get privileges that she deserves but still accepts her true identity. Clare has a much shallower approach to the idea of “passing”, which ends up working to her disadvantage in the end.

Nella Larsen’s novel is entitled “Passing”. In the novel, two African-American women are light enough to “pass” as white women. Therefore, we can interpret that the main reason for the title of the book is to reference the two main characters and their experiences passing for white.

In the 1920’s, passing for a white woman brings great advantages and privileges. As white women, Irene and Clare can dine and visit where ever they want. They can freely enjoy the company of white men and women, which means they can participate in the activities of high society without discrimination. They get respect and admiration from most other people. Understanding these advantages helps us to understand why they would sacrifice their own racial heritage to pass as white women. Irene wants to hold on to her black culture, but Clare is too far gone.

Passing could also be a reference to the passage of time, as Clare and Irene were childhood friends, and chose to continue their relationship as adults. In addition, it could also refer to Clare’s sudden passing (death) at the end of the novel.

 

Throughout the novel, there are many instances in which the word “passing” is relevantly used or its definition is alluded to. The main usage of the word is to mean “passing as a white person.” This definition is present as a basis for the novel. In the beginning, Irene worries that she will be found out to be black as she sips tea at a cafe in Chicago and Clare stares at her.

Later, she remembers who Clare is and where she knows her from: she was known rather infamously in their home town for passing as white and riding around with older wealthy white men, who would wine and dine her, spend lavishly on gifts for her, and take her to various parties and social events.

The unfortunate fact is that passing is very much so rooted in ideas of self hatred or struggling for power, or often a combination of both. Clare soon admits that she hates her husband and his racist ideas, and wishes that she could tell him off and be true to her self and her race, but of course she can’t because it would completely blow her cover and ruin her life as it is.

In the more literal sense, “passing” in the novel also sometimes means a passing of time, as in the two years that pass between Clare and Irene meeting in Chicago and Irene receiving Clare’s letter. It’s other meaning in the literal sense is Clare’s death that comes at the end of the novel, when Irene pushes her out of the window in a panicking and jealous rage.

Lucia Lopez

Explore the literal and figurative meaning of “passing.”

The word “passing” has a deeper meaning in the context of the novel of the same name by Nella Larson than it does superficially. Literally, passing means to go by. The term can be used in a variety of ways but implies mobility and transition, which relates to its figurative meaning.

In the novel, passing means for a person of color to be able to be mistaken for being white. Both Claire and Irene are African-American women, but their skin is light enough for them to be mistaken as European. There are societal consequences of being able to “pass” as well. Privilege is closely associated with passing because it allows people of color to live their lives with the advantages of being white. For example, Irene was able to have a cup of tea at the Drayton because she looked white, therefore she would not get kicked out. Claire takes advantage of her passing even more, not telling her own husband that she is really African-American. Although segregation is not a legal issue in the US anymore, passing is still existent and still provides certain benefits to those who can pass. I myself experience this because although I am Latina, my skin is very light and I am usually mistaken for European. That means that I do not endure the racism and stereotypes that my darker-skinned Latina friends and family members go through because no one ever assumes I am Latina.

In this age of society, people have mixed so much that race is not an obvious indicator of ethnicity anymore. We should not assume someone’s ethnicity based on something so superficial. The fact that people can pass and live life with less obstacles also reveals that our society is in fact prejudice and we should work to change that in order to better the lives of those who have to endure oppression due to racism.

The title of Nella Larsen’s novel, Passing, refers to a popular idea that is evident throughout the past and even up to the present. It is clear that “passing” refers to people who have features close enough to looking like another race that it is believable to say that they are that specific race. This idea is not uncommon for its superficiality basing all of it on looks and mannerisms. In the time period of the novel, the early twentieth century, racial tensions are high and societal views of African Americans are negatively narrow-minded. Clare uses her light colored skin to her advantage as she lives life as a white woman, neglecting her black heritage. She shows her shame in her ethnicity by hiding who she really is from her husband and everyone else she meets. On the other hand, Irene embraces her black heritage and hosts events to bring the black community together. Although she does acknowledge her ethnicity, she still uses her light colored skin to her advantage like eating in the Drayton Hotel and hailing taxis.

My first thoughts of the title before reading the novel lead to the euphemism for dying: “passing away” or “passing on”. I was surprised to find that the only death in the novel came at the end with Clare.