In the novel Passing by Nella Larsen we meet two very similar mixed women who have two different experiences in dealing with their race. Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield were both brought up as mixed women in a situation where race was a social issue. Both Clare and Irene take very different paths. Clare decides to abandon her black heritage to gain more social acceptance and so that racism would not be so prominent in her life. Irene on the other hand is very involved in the black community and believes that Clare forgetting about her black heritage is a problem. Clare and Irene are both part of the same mixed race, but both have very different views about their black heritage. In my paper I am going to start out explaining Clare and Irene’s different views about their race and then I will contrast the similarities and difference in the thoughts that Irene and Clare have.
Throughout the novel Clare abandons her black heritage to pass as a wealthy white woman. In the beginning of the novel Clare’s dad dies when she is just fifteen years old and ends up being raised by white family members. They didn’t really like Clare because she was part black, and this brings up the possibly that she could be passing to get away from the racism. Skipping ahead Clare goes on to marry John Bellew, a very racist white man. John has no clue that Clare is part black and for this very reason he wouldn’t have married her. This forces Clare to live with the chance that her husband may one day find out her true racial identity. This also makes her force herself to hold in her desire to associate with the black community. During a meeting with Irene Clare tells her that “she’s got what she wanted, and…it was worth it” (44). In another conversation with Irene, Clare mentions “im not safe” “to get things I want badly enough, id do anything, hurt anybody, throw anything away.” Because Clare would do anything if she wanted it badly enough brings up the possibility that she threw away her...