Blog 3: Passing (part one)

        The critical article I read is entitled “Clare Kendry’s ‘True’ Colors: Race and Class Conflict in Nella Larson’s Passing” by Jennifer Devere Brody. Brody’s thesis is that “Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry as representatives of different ideologies locked in struggle for dominance” (Brody 394). These two ideologies are the American middle class society, represented by Irene, and Black culture seen in Clare. Brody believes that throughout the novel, Irene continually fights to uphold her middle class status and wants to move up the social ladder. Her insistence for her husband, Brian, to remain in New York to practice medicine is based on her own view of herself as an American, not a black woman, but strictly as an American and that she belongs in America. Clare’s opposite ideology is a threat to Irene. Clare does not worry about her husband finding out that she is partly Black because it is Black Harlem that she wants to belong to. She is tired of living a double life and has realized that it is Black Harlem that she identifies with most. It is Irene who is constantly worries about Clare’s true identity being discovered and Brody argues that it is because Irene is the character who struggles with her race identity. Irene wants to move up in society and leave the Harlem scene behind and Clare is making that difficult for her.
            Brody believes that Clare’s reason for wanting to be associated with the Black, middle class Redfields is because the Redfields represent what Clare wanted as a young girl. Brody notes that Clare’s father was a janitor when she was young, implying that Clare was poor. Clare wanted to get away from that lifestyle so she left, started passing as White due to her light colored skin, and was able to marry a white man. Now, however, Clare has a chance to associate with the people who she can really relate to, Black middle class. But since Clare has charmed Irene’s husband, Brian, Irene now sees Clare as a possible hindrance to achieving higher status in society. It is then, Brody argues, that Irene plots to murder Clair. 
          Brody believes that the most important aspect of this story is race and class and it is the fear of losing her class status that causes Irene to murder Clare. Her research method is based on a close reading of Irene's attitude throughout the entire story. She begins with seeing how Irene reacts to being allowed into the Drayton, she refers to it as a "rising tower" which can be translated into how Irene feels about being with the upper class. Brody focuses on Irene throughout the story in order to make the claims she does.




Brody, Jennifer Devere. “Clare Kendry’s ‘True’ Colors: Race and Class Conflict in Nella Larson’s Passing”.  Carla Kaplan. Passing: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2007. Print.