Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
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1.) This is ALL about race. The title alone tells us. And race in a way that I doubt anyone outside of the US can directly understand, and frankly, even those of us who are (or were, in my case) Americans but are northern WASPs, have only the most limited understanding of. "Passing for white" made you a pariah to both whites (if discovered) and blacks, leaving you isolated and alone. [...]
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If the intention of the book was to tell us about the hardships of being part-Negro and passing for white and being a pariah on both sides, then it fails quite dismally. In part 1 chapter 2 we see three part-Negro women all able to pass as white and all seem to have reasonably good lives. They seem to have reasonably good marriages - their husbands are not abusive or dismissive of them, albeit that in Clare's case that might only be because he doesn't know the truth.
Clare reveals some dissatisfaction with her life, related to race, after that first meeting, but we see that only in the distance. It is Irene that the story concentrates on and while she is revealed as unhappy, it appears to be mostly due to some internal/personal dissatisfaction that (as far as we are told) has nothing to do with race or the hardships this might have imposed.
For all that the book is titled
Passing, when the final confrontation happens the tragedy is painted not as so much a consequence of Clare's passing as white, but as a consequence of Irene's belief that Clare is having an affair with Brian. (We are led to believe that Irene could have averted the confrontation had she warned Clare about what Jack may have guessed.) The abrupt nature of the conclusion only serves to focus the book as being about the interpersonal relationships rather than wider racial issues.