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Passing: A reality suffered by many

Black Americans have been belonging to such people who have been denied their basic

rights from the very beginning and faced a lot of changings within their community as

highlighted in the book, Passing. Nobody changes or denies their true identity until they have

been subjected to oppression and racial treatment, and it not only leaves a mark on their

psychological health but leaves many questions unanswered. The book focuses on the lives of

two friends, Claire and Irene. Clare Thus, racial discrimination towards black people in USA had

some people of the black community deny their identity, by changing to the culture and styles of

the white people. By doing this, they ensure that due to their race, they aren’t denied the right to

live a life which white people enjoy as its proven by Claire that she marries a white for a

comfortable life without telling him her reality.

The story of the book highlights the grim reality of the people during the beginning of the

20th century when they had to move towards the North afterlife in the South wasn’t providing

enough to fulfill the necessities of life for the black Americans. The story features two friends

who are both light-skinned and black. One character, Irene, admits to people that she is black as

her family and husband are aware of her background and roots, but her friend, Clare doesn’t have

the conviction to tell her husband the truth. Her husband was a racist as he didn’t like black

people at all. This shows that people who got a chance to live a better life even at the expanse of

their true identity were ready to do so (Nzindukiyimana and O’Connor). This also highlights that

despite being independent for more than a hundred years, the people of the USA couldn’t accept
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black Americans as their equals. They would loathe them and didn’t want to find themselves

near anyone of them. To his Clare says: ““I'm not such an idiot that I don't realize that if a man

calls me a nigger it's his fault the first time, but mine if he has the opportunity to do it again”. As was

seen when Irene, Clare, and one of their another friend were found together in a room by Clare’s

husband, and Irene finds out that her husband couldn’t bear black people despite knowing the

fact that his wife was black too.

The author shed light on the fact that black people have to face certain kind of restrictions

and marginalization in the USA as she says: “I feel like the oldest person in the world with the

longest stretch of life before me”. The story can be interpreted in a way that shows how life can

change when someone can knowingly transform their self without even considering what could

be the root cause of it, but it can also be seen that a person can only connect with the people to

whom they belong no matter what they try to become. This could be proved that Clare couldn’t

end her friendship with Irene because she had known her for years and she couldn’t connect with

other people the way she could with her. Although Irene gets uncomfortable and finds it absurd

that why someone would lie about themselves and especially to their families just for the sake of

wealth and a comfortable lifestyle. But to some extent, it could be predicted what could have

caused Clare to do it (Rottenberg).

While discussing various aspects of the lives of characters in the book, the author has used

a persuasive and effective that enables every person reading to understand the meaning of the

statements delivered by the characters. The tone of the words on some occasions has been strict

and straight forward that had added a shred of extra evidence to the whole claim made in the

book for instances she has said: “It’s easy for a Negro to ‘pass’ for white. But I don’t think it would

be so simple for a white person to ‘pass’ for colored”. Whenever prejudice against black people has
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been witnessed in the book, the tone gets a bit emotional while quoting some racist remarks, the

tone gets strong as proven by the above quotation. It is the deliverance of the text that has made

the book and its content relevant. For example, while describing the character of Clare, words

with negative connotations have been used to show that her nature took her from her true identity

and urged her to become more like white people, as she mentions: ““But she did not look the

future in the face. She wanted to feel nothing, to think nothing; simply to believe that it was all silly

invention on her part. Yet she could not. Not quite”(Sullivan). All of these descriptions make the

story and its theme effective and important because of a lot of reasons. The purpose of

establishing a childhood link between Irene and Clare was to show that Irene couldn’t recognize

Clare after she had transformed herself and how she had known her before her turning into

someone completely different. Without giving a previous reference, the author couldn’t add more

depth into her analysis and display the emotions Irene had when she first encountered Clair after

years.

The most interesting part of the text is that they have been relatable to each other. Each

paragraph connects another paragraph in such a way that an idea continues to evolve rather than

breaking somewhere in between. The story that has been told in the earlier paragraphs has been

connected to later paragraphs that have maintained the coherence and not twisted the ideas

altogether. The most appreciative thing about the texts of the book is that they present one sole

idea and don’t argue for various ideas at the same time and depict the feelings of many through

one as it has been said: ““I'm human like everybody else. It's just that I'm so tired, so worn out, I

can't feel anymore”. (Larsen). The issue that has been discussed was not only relevant then, but is

relevant in today’s world too. It talks about the discrimination against black Americans was one

of the leading factors that urged people to change their identities and try to fit in society for
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good. The societal structure at that time considered white Americans as superior which gave no

choice to the black men and women to adopt what the majority followed. Even in today’s

society, discrimination based on color has not seen its end and many have to face the brunt

because of it.

To put it all in a nutshell, the book is a masterpiece as it highlights the dark areas of the

history of American society and provides an insight into the life of the people who were facing

all the challenges posed by white Americans. It also shows a man can change according to the

circumstances, but it always doesn’t end well in the end. Indeed, one shouldn’t deny their true

self on any basis, but Clare couldn’t be blamed altogether as she wanted a comfortable life that

wasn’t offered to the people back then. Thus, living in a prejudiced society isn’t easy as it

encloses a lot of unrevealed secrets. The story is based on a real theme tells that how societies

are shaped and how people react to it.

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Work Cited

Larsen, Nella. Passing. Modern Library, 2002. Print.

Nzindukiyimana, Ornella, and Eileen O’Connor. "Let’s (Not) Meet at the Pool: A Black
Canadian Social History of Swimming (1900s–1960s)." Loisir et Société/Society and
Leisure 42.1 (2019): 137-64. Print.
Rottenberg, Catherine. "" Passing": Race, Identification, and Desire." Criticism 45.4 (2003): 435-
52. Print.
Sullivan, Nell. "Nella Larsen's Passing and the Fading Subject." African American Review 32.3
(1998): 373-86. Print.