Nella Larsen's Passing Analysis

In Claudia Tate’s essay: “Nella Larsen’s Passing: A Problem of Interpretation,” Tate holds the opinion and states that many of the various critics of literature misunderstood the main plot and point of Nella Larsen’s Passing, and that they argue that Larsen’s novel is often criticized for being an ineffective mulatto tragic. Tate’s essay introduction begins by briefly recapitulating the main story of Larsen’s novel, and how it concludes with Clare Kendry’s often misinterpreted death. She begins by explaining how Irene Redfield seems to be obsessed with Clare Kendry, and how her obsession goes as far as Irene accusing her husband, Brian Redfield, for cheating on her with Kendry. Tate also indicates how Irene is an “unreliable center of consciousness,”
I stand by this opinion due to the fact that Larsen lived through and experienced the Harlem renaissance first hand, as she grew up in the 1920s. Because of this, Larsen must have seen many black people to be passing for white, which is the main concept of her novel. According to Black History Now’s biography on Larsen, she grew up in a white suburb in Chicago, which must have greatly affected her outlook on white people and may have inspired the creation of Clare’s racist white husband, John Bellew. I argue this due to the fact that the white people of the United States of America were still adjusting to living in the same land as black people, and they were simply racist and full of prejudice during that time