“It was, she saw at once, what she had expected since learning from the postmark that Clare was in the city. An extravagantly phrased wish to see her again. Well she needn’t and wouldn’t, Irene told herself, accede to that. Nor would she assist Clare to realize her foolish desire to return for a moment to that life which long ago, and of her own choice, she had left behind her.” (pg. 11)
Leading a life with no regret is something that very few people have ever accomplished. In the novel Passing, written by Nella Larsen, a character by the name of Clare abandons part of her heritage to blend in with white society while her old friend Irene decided to embrace black culture. Irene is a very hard character to read and Larson makes it so it is ambiguous as to whether or not Irene regrets her decision to commit herself to a black woman’s life. Throughout the book Irene struggles with the decision she made and never fully copes with it.
Irene has made her decision to co-inside with black culture, this action is one that she expresses verbally as the right move, but inside is indecisive about it. As the passage describes, Irene is trying to verbally convince herself that the decision that she made was the right one. As she tells Clare “You see, Clare, I’ve everything I want. Except, perhaps, a little more money.”(pg. 28) During her conversations with Clare she tries to prove it to Clare and herself that she is perfectly happy with the lifestyle that she chose. Irene is constantly talking about how she is contempt with her decision to others but inside she still wonders what it would be like to have “passed” for a white person. In the passage above when she references her past relations to Clare there is a sense of nostalgia, almost like she wants to go back there and relive those moments of her life in which race did not play a role. Although she never verbally refutes her decision that she made there is an inkling of doubt inside of her that makes her...