Passing: an Ironic Perspective

AFRAS 260
April 16, 2013
Passing: An Ironic Perspective
Nella Larsen’s novel Passing, is both written, and set during the Post-Reconstruction Era, which refers to the period of time after the abolition of slavery. Throughout this era, hopes of eliminating discrimination recoiled and led to enforced segregation which encouraged the subordination of African-Americans. Despite African-American’s constant efforts to achieve equality in a race-dominated society, preconceived binary constructions of race led to progressively disregarded social, political, and economic inequalities between the black and white communities during the 19th and 20th centuries. The basis of racial binary constructions, were driven by slavery, and fueled by the idea of white supremacy, and black inferiority; these principles were ingrained within the American society, and were the foundation for demeaning and dismissive racial attitudes.
Demeaning can be defined as behavior that causes someone “to lower in dignity, honor, or standing.” Dismissive is defined as “having the purpose or effect of dismissing [removing], as from one 's presence or consideration.” White racial attitudes supported the idea that the African-American race was naturally of lower status, therefore rejecting their equality from consideration. When applied to racial attitudes in Passing, these behaviors are displayed in situations rejecting racial equality, interracial relations and relationships, and both the physical and emotional act of passing. Nella Larsen’s setting allows for the strategic use of her reader’s point of view to utilize the aspects of irony in the text to protest the demeaning, and dismissive racial attitudes of white supremacy and black inferiority.
The Post-Reconstruction Era setting Larsen employs, allows the reader to conceive a background perspective of the racial attitudes presented throughout the text. Due to the progression of demeaning, and dismissive racial attitudes, blacks and whites were hardly perceived as equal. The African-American community experienced severe turmoil and increased oppression, as demonstrated throughout Larsen’s novel. For instance, when Hugh Wentworth, a famous white writer and African-American philanthropist, states to Irene, “But what I’m trying to find out is the name, status, and race of the blond beauty out of the fairy tale” (54), we can see his concern for tarnishing his reputation from interacting with someone of lower status, despite the fact that he is a philanthropist. From Irene’s perspective as a person of mixed-blood interacting with Mr.Wentworth, we are able to see the irony in his behavior and his dismissive statement as one of Larsen’s many protests to stereotypical racial attitudes.
Larsen provides her reader with not only a narrator’s point of view, but also skillfully includes Irene’s depth of perspective to present complexities of racial identity not otherwise considered. Thus, giving the reader the ability to critically analyze all situations presented throughout her text from an African-American dominant perspective, especially in scenarios involving passing. The novel is primarily concerned with two mulatto women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry. Mulattos were African-Americans of mixed-blood, whose physical appearance enabled them to be a part of white society. If mulattos chose to solely commit to their white identity, and disregard their African-American race, they were choosing to pass. Although they both have the ability to pass as white, they choose opposite lifestyles, allowing Larsen to highlight the irony in dismissive and demeaning racial attitudes. This dual perspective of both the narrator and the characters allows Larsen to protest ideas of white superiority and black inferiority.
In Irene’s first encounter with Clare, “She wished to find out about this hazardous business of ‘passing,’ this breaking away from all that was familiar and friendly to take one’s chance in another environment, not entirely strange, perhaps, but certainly not friendly” (17) . The act of passing itself presented throughout Larsen’s novel is a protest to dismissive and demeaning racial attitudes. Irene completely identifies with her African-American culture, and still manages, for the most part, to lead a fulfilling and successful life with her husband and family. Although Irene does choose to pass, it is only as a means of convenience in order to receive certain benefits that were only available to the privileged whites. Clare on the other hand, displays dismissive racial behavior because she has fully passed by disowning her black identity, and submerging herself into a white lifestyle. “I’ve often wondered why more colored girls…never ‘passed’ over. It’s such a frightfully easy thing to do. If one’s the type, all that’s needed is a little nerve” (25). In this statement, Larsen is questioning the allurement to a race that was seen with disgust as a primitive By choosing mulatto characters who casually and frequently pass as the centerpiece for her novel, Larsen challenges the demeaning theory of black inferiority as a means for segregation by showing African-American’s unknown ability to successfully (on a superficial level) be a part of white society.
Larsen’s use of mulatto characters permits a unique dual perspective of race that shows the reader the true irony in racial attitudes of passing. When Clare talks with Irene regarding her decision to pass, she states, “When the chance to get away came, that omission was of great value to me.” Most people believed that achieving the superior race status, and being able to access the privileges of being white, regardless of its implications would lead to some sort of utopian happiness. This is exemplified when Larsen provides the overall perspective of African-Americans through Irene’s reminiscing about the numerous encounters of Clare being seen with various white peoples. “There had been rumors…about Clare Kendry’s having been seen at the dinner hour in a fashionable hotel… And there was another which told of her driving in Lincoln Park with a man, unmistakably white…There had been others… but all pointing in the same glamorous direction” (13). Larsen confronts these beliefs of the lavish white lifestyle by informing her readers of Clare’s latter perspective of the situation. “…For I am lonely, so lonely…You can’t know how in this pale life of mine I am all the time seeing the bright pictures of the other that I once thought I was glad to be free of…It’s like an ache, a pain that never ceases…” (7). Although Clare “was determined to get away, to be a person, and not a charity or a problem” (18), her mischievous, and dismissive actions ironically made her desire the African-American culture she once betrayed. Larsen challenges the demeaning theory of white cultural dominance, through Clare’s grief and craving for acceptance in the African-American community. This ironic point of view only accessible by passing characters, provides for an undercover perspective on racial attitudes.
This undercover passing perspective further allows Larsen to protest demeaning and dismissive racial attitudes by also showing the irony in Clare and her husband, Jack Bellew’s, relationship. While having a conversation with Irene, Clare and another passing woman, Bellew states, “No niggers in my family. Never have been and never will be” (29). Although he supports the idea of white supremacy and the idea that white’s relationships with blacks were demeaning, he is in fact married to someone who was considered to be the “curse of the ham”. By displaying the irony of this relationship, Larsen diminishes racist attitudes through the ignorance of their beliefs.
Through Larsen’s ability to use Irene as a semi-passing character, we are given a new perspective on the faultiness of demeaning and dismissive racial attitudes. As demonstrated throughout Passing, many times, people’s racial attitudes unknowingly did not coincide with their behaviors, desires, and interests. Clare’s character, and her relationships, are an excellent portrayal of the ignorance of beliefs in white superiority and black inferiority. Through the dual perspective of mulatto characters, and Irene and Clare’s opposing lifestyles, Larsen successfully counteracts dismissive and demeaning racial attitudes associated with white supremacy, and black inferiority.

Works Cited
"Demean." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 16 Apr. 2013. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/demeaning>.
"Dismissive." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 16 Apr. 2013. <Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dismissive>.
Larsen, Nella. Passing. Blacksburg: Wilder Publications, Inc., 2010. Print

Cited: "Demean." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 16 Apr. 2013.    &lt;Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/demeaning&gt;. "Dismissive." Dictionary.com Unabridged. Random House, Inc. 16 Apr. 2013. &lt;Dictionary.com http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dismissive&gt;. Larsen, Nella. Passing. Blacksburg: Wilder Publications, Inc., 2010. Print