It took me a minute here to figure out exactly what was going on this book; I didnt take the title into much consideration, I thought "passing" would mean someone passing away. I found out in the fist few chapters that i was wrong, and "passin"g meant passing as a white person even tho there is black blood involved. This book relates back to James Weldon Johnsons autobio in that the main character is light skinned and percieved by many to be white but acutally somewhat black. I ama bit confused as to how this girl is tricking her racist husband into believing this story. Maybe as a I read on it will explain this sitution better but i dont understand how the husband would marry this girl without ever meeting someone in her family! Either that or this guy knows and is just picking on his wife by calling her "nig". I think that is weird if he doesnt have any idea that she is black at all. Does this classify this girl as a gold digger? She apparently is looking for white gold...what comes along with being white? I guess she wants to be part of a more civilized and exclusive crowd? it must be some kind of thrill, but i would be pissed if someone i married lied to me about there heritage... if i loved them i loved them but come on dont lie about something as serious as this. I wonder how she became involved with such a racist guy too. i have another question.. are her friends white or black or are they just "passing? as well?
Anyway the reading has engaged me somewhat and the conversation and vocabulary have been great-- the story so far on par and refreshing compared to the poetry weve been reading..but im waiting for this sotry to develop into something with action and not just racist remarks. Clare dissapeared, but she gonna be around and be found out by everyone who thought she was gone? Her parents etc...? I wonder how the husband is going to respond if he finds out his wife is black.. > im hoping this makes him more accepting...but he might want to kill her!
I think that this girl Clare and whoever else make a joke out of their heritage, culture and people all together by hiding behind their appearance. I think people should be proud... if she want s to act or be a certain way than so be it.. just dont lie about where u came from that is disheartening
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Until reading your post I didn't really think of the fact that Clare's husband must not have met any of her family. Now that I read your blog I'm really surprised about this and it's bothering me. Maybe all the people in her family that he has met are also "passing". But I really have no idea. You bring up a good point that maybe her husband does know and he is messing with her the same way she is messing with him. It's going to be interesting to read part 3 to find out.
Steve, I'm sitting here thinking about your post. There are a number of reasons why Mr.Bellew did not meet Clare's family. She could have said that she doesn't like them. Lots of people aren't close to their family. I think the main reason that Mr.Bellow has not met her family is because he has nobody to meet. Her father died at a very young age. She was raised by her aunts who were white. She never really had that heritage to her African Roots. The novel never mentions her mother whom I'm assuming is black. Larsen basically is trying to portray to us that Clare is really white.
You bring up an interesting point about whether or not Clare’s friends are passing as well. I think that is the interesting thing about passing because it is difficult to know for certain if a person is African American or white based on their appearance. Clare’s husband for example feels that he can absolutely tell and ironically his own wife is passing. I think that it may be possible that many people that Clare knows could be passing as well and she doesn’t even realize it. I think that this was probably very common occurrence during this time.
Yeah that point about Clare's family is a good one. One of the main things this story makes us think of is all the reasons why blacks who could pass did pass. It was truly another world and a whole other list of reasons and justifications for concealing one's race.
I agree that people should be proud of their race, and that, even though Irene and Clare live in a time when they couldn't necessarily voice their opinions on race verbally, their passive nature simply makes them appear backbone-less. At so many points during the novel, I felt like shaking Irene or Clare and asking them why they didn't WALK away from the lives they didn't like, or at least speak up. It is hard to believe that so many women one lived in such submission to race and social status.
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