Summary Of Passing By Nella Larsen

Passing, by Nella Larsen, our main characters are Irene and Clare. They are continually scrutinized and psychoanalyzed by everyone who reads Passing. However, the choices they make reflect the period they live in. In the 1920s, as black women in America, they did not have many choices so they fell into the ideal roles of housewives and mothers.Clare and Irene are just two more victims of societal and media pressure. They have learned only one life is worth living, the perfect life, and they must do anything to obtain it, even if it means rejecting their own happiness. While it may be easy to judge Irene and Clare, they have gone through endeavors we can never envision. Larsen uses them to expose how susceptible people are to putting what society deems correct above their own wishes and
Their community is very strict and religious, the community is quick to judge people, and Clare is no exception. The main difference between Clare and Irene is that Clare's family are “as poor as church mice” and her “father [is] a janitor” (26, 114). Irene lives a more privileged life with “all the things [Clare] want[s] and never ha[s]” (27). One of those things being security, Irene always knew she would be fine. One way or another she would find a good husband based on her class alone. Clare never knew where she would be, causing her to choose a life of passing, which is another way for her to obtain a safe life. Now Clare wants the status and the treatment of being a white person. She even says that passing over “is frightfully the easiest thing to do” (26). However, safety is what Clare truly yearns for. Since she is “not safe” in her own life, she will “do anything, hurt anybody, [and] throw anyone away” for the things she wants (83). This is not because she is selfish at heart, but because society has got into her mind to value safety and nothing