ACM week 9 notes
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School
New York University *
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Course
101
Subject
Arts Humanities
Date
Nov 24, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
3
Uploaded by CaptainComputer7740
Form and content
content: what is said
form: how is it said
beginning:
inciting incident
midpoint
climax
endpoint
What do you think happened at the end of the story? Did Clare jump out the
window? Did Irene push her? Was it an accident? What effect does the
author's ambiguity regarding this final scene have on your interpretation of
the story?
What is the theme of this story? What is the author trying to say about race
and the society she lived in? Do you find it an effective way to discuss the
ideas and problems of race?
What do the women's husbands tell us about them and what they value? Why
did Clare decide to marry a white man and not reveal her racial background?
What effect do you think this will have on her daughter? Why did Irene marry
a black man with a dark complexion? What effect do you think this has on her
sons?
Passing presents two women, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, who make very
different choices yet whose lives intertwine in startling ways. Compare the
characters of each. What are each woman’s strengths? Her weaknesses?
What are each woman’s attitudes toward race? How do these attitudes
influence the novel’s plot?
for blacks living in America, is it better to pass and enjoy white privilege, or is
it better to claim one's black heritage and face the possible consequences of
racism, including violence and death? Clare offers two outcomes for such a
choice: Which is wiser? Which is happier?
You can get as black as you please ... since I know you're no nigger.
Bellew's outrageous remark highlights his racist character, but it also
illustrates that social views of race don't necessarily have to do with
physicality. It is fine for Clare to have dark skin because Bellew knows she isn't
African American. In this way race manifests as a state of mind rather than a
collection of physical attributes.
Teacup
The fancy teacup Irene shatters at the tea party symbolizes Clare, which
allows Larsen to foreshadow Clare's death. Like she does with Clare, Irene
brings the teacup out at parties for its aesthetic pleasure. The teacup is an
object from Irene's past, one that stirs unpleasant feelings inside her. Irene
claims the teacup is a Confederate object, which would stir feelings of
repulsion. Clare, too, is a person from Irene's past who stirs uncomfortable
feelings of homoeroticism. Irene doesn't know what to do with her muddled
emotions about Clare—she constantly claims to feel both joy and vexation in
Clare's presence—so she suppresses all of them and pretends as if everything
is fine, much to the detriment of her mental health.
When Clare shatters the teacup, she claims to have done so because she
never knew how to "[get] rid of it" before: "I had only to break it, and I was rid
of it for ever." This foreshadows the way Irene perhaps breaks Clare by
pushing her from the window ledge.
Cigarette
Irene's cigarette at the Freeland's party also symbolizes Clare, which works to
foreshadow Clare's death. This symbol relies on the comparison of sexuality to
a flame or spark. On the night of the party, Clare's beauty literally becomes
flame-like as Irene notes Clare's "radiant ... shining red gown." The term
radiant connotes heat. As she finishes smoking Irene watches the "tiny spark"
of her cigarette drop from the window in the same way Clare will fall from the
window ledge, "a vital glowing thing, like a flame of red and gold." In death
the spark of Clare's personality (and arguably the flame of her sexuality) has
been snuffed out.
For light-skinned African Americans such as Irene and Clare, being black has
more to do with community and spirit than one's outward appearance. In
Passing, Larsen suggests that being black is much more than one's skin color
—it's a sense of community and belonging nonexistent in the white world.
Racial Identity/Suppressed Sexuality/The Importance of Family
Passing offers the reader two different models of motherhood in the
characters of Irene and Clare, who each experience parenthood very
differently. For Irene, parenting is a kind of security, and an important aspect
of her identity. Parenthood offers her a purpose and a way to structure her life.
Irene tells Clare that she takes “being a mother rather seriously,” and that she
is “wrapped up in [her] boys and the running of her house.” In this respect,
Irene shows the reader a more traditional model of motherhood, in which
children are a mother’s primary focus, and motherhood is an important aspect
of female identity.
projection two mothers Irene associates motherhood with the idea of security.
Motherhood provides Irene with (a presumed) insurance that Brian will not
leave her, and she frequently falls back on that sense of security when she
and Brian fight. Moreover, Irene thinks it is her duty as a parent to provide
security to her children, and to insulate them from the racism of the outside
world. Brian, meanwhile, disagrees with Irene’s impulse to protect their
children from racism, thinking he should prepare his children for life in a
country where they will undoubtedly suffer at the hands of racist individuals
and systems. Irene’s disagreement with Brian highlights that Irene thinks of
her motherhood as security—both in that she feels she should provide
security to her children, and that it gives her security as well. Irene seems to
see the family as a space that racism should not be allowed to penetrate,
even if it means keeping the harsh realities of the world from her children.
Clare, on the other hand, offers a radically different model of motherhood than
Irene’s. For Clare, motherhood is not an important aspect of her identity, and
rather than using it to structure her life, she tries to find ways to build her life
in spite of it. During the same conversation where Irene says that she takes
being a mother seriously, Clare asserts that “children aren’t everything,”
suggesting that she does not see motherhood as her main purpose. Larsen
emphasizes the fact that Clare sees motherhood as a minor part of her life by
never actually introducing the reader to Clare’s daughter Margery, keeping
her on the sidelines of Clare’s presence in the novel. The lack of importance
that Clare places on motherhood shows how she departs from the traditional
domestic, maternal female role.
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