Passing

Nella Larson family:

Immigrant family, her mother was from Denmark and her father was from the Danish West Indies. They settled in a working class neighborhood in Chicago. Her father disappeared and her mother remarried a white man

What happened when Nella's mother remarried? Why?

Her mother did not name Nella as living with her, Nella was listed as living in a place for erring women. Her mother might have done this so that they could live in the white neighborhood

Nella Larson college and career life:

She went to school at Lincoln School for Nurses, was hired as a superintendent, returned to NY to join the staff at Lincoln School of Nurses, the worked at the NY public library. During this time she wrote two novels

Who two novels did Nella Larson write?

Quicksand and Passing

Why did Nella Larson stop writing?

She wrote a short story and was accused of plagiarism

Why did Larson's marriage end? How did her life end?

Her husband moved to Nashville because he was having an affair with a white woman. After her husbands death, she moved downtown and returned to nursing, disappearing from public life before dying of a heart attack

Famous court case happening at the same time that Nella Larson wrote Passing:

The Rylander Case: a lower class mixed race woman married a rich man named Kip Rylander. This marriage was blown up in the media and Rylander's father threatens to not give him money. Rylander tries to annul the marriage but she gets alimony because they rule that it would have been impossible for him not to have known her race

How does the Rylander case connect with major themes in Passing:

Hiding identity to claim another, sexuality/class/gender passing,

Celebrities wold have passed for white to have big careers:

Ina Ray Hudson, Merle Oberon, Carol Channing, Jennifer Beals, Mariah Carey

In what aspects will people pass?

Sexuality, gender, class

What happens in chapter 1?

Irene establishes herself as narrator, describes Clare, and reads Clare's letter

How does Irene describe Clare before realizing who she is?

She describes her in stereotypically white beauty terms

How does Irene limit our perspective of Clare? How does she describe her after realizing who she is?

We meet Clare through Irene's bitchy description of her. She says that Clare is selfish/dangerous/catlike

What happens in chapter 2?

There is a flashback to the day that Irene met Clare on the rooftop of the Drake. It was very hot so she went to the Drake, she is kind of crabby, an attractive woman is staring at her, as soon as Irene realizes who Clare is her description changes to very negative

What is Irene essentially doing while she is at the Drake?

She is passing for white, passing by the Drake, wants to be a universal subject but the woman staring at her doesn't allow her to do this

Themes in Passing:

Beauty standards, race pride, frustration with the color line in America, coliseum, belonging/heritage/family, marriage and heterosexuality, respectability/upper middle-class propriety/socially conventional behavior, masquerade/masks/performace

How is Irene divided when it comes to Clare?

There is something about what Clare has done that is abhorrent to her and other part of her that is fascinated by it/her

what is ironic when it comes to Clare's description of Clare?

Irene was complaining about the categories of race that people always put her in. she does this exact thing with Clare though, she goes over Clare's features, obviously likes them and observes them as face characteristics

What does Clare end up loving about Clare? What does this show?

Her black characteristics (black eyes). Even though she is looking at Clare through critical eyes, through eyes informed by white society/beauty standards, her black pride turns these standards on her side when she ends up loving the blackness about Clare

Why does Irene feel like an Outsider when sharing Tea with Clare and Gertrude?

Clare and Gertrude are talking about what it's like to be married to white men and bear children in a colorist society

What happen's when John Bellew enters the room?

He calls Clare a racist nickname and Irene is forced into a corner: she can come out as black and endanger her friend or stay in and let Bellew's racism continue. Irene finds the situation so bizarre that she can't stop laughing

Who has the advantage when John Bellew enters the room?

The women have the power with their knowledge but their silence allows his racism to have power

Why is Brian unhappy?

He wants to move to Brazil but Irene won't let him

Clares says that under other conditions she might have liked John Bellew. What does this mean?

She is viewing the situation from a perspective alien to her own ethics, showing her instability/divided self

Why does Irene not want to move to Brazil?

She says that it is unfair for the boys, but she denies her self interest/need to control the situation

What does it mean when Brian says that sex is a joke?

He essentially is saying that his marriage with Irene is a joke and that they are not in a happy marriage. This puts Irene into a closet of marital unhappiness where both she and Brian keep up appearances but are not really together

Describe Irene:

Full of fears and denial but controlling

Describe Brian:

Detached, mocking, restless, angry, unhappy

Describe Clare:

Mysterious, melancholy, "having"

Who was Hugh Wentworth?

A white man who would go to the Harlem parties and categorize/fix people by race as he studied them

What happens after Irene learns that Brian invited Clare to the dance?

This makes her angry because Clare is something that she can't control. She decides that Brian and Clare are having an affair and that this is why Brian has been so distant

How does Bellew realize that Irene is black?

he sees Irene out with black friends

What does the spark of Irene's cigarette falling out of the window foreshadow?

The spark of Clare's life falling out of the window

What might have happened to Clare?

She committed suicide, Bellew pushed her, Irene pushed her

What is passing about? Why?

Broken possibilities. Irene and Clare could have been friends/lovers, but this is broken by the patriarchal, heteronormative, racist society that is inflicted upon them