Quote:
Originally Posted by CRussel
As I said much earlier in this thread, I don't think that how she died really matters to what the book is about ...
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I'm going back to this comment. What IS the book about, anyway? Larsen doesn't give us a lot of social context or go beyond a small group of relatively privileged, upper-class blacks and a few whites. Irene doesn't care about the outside world, only her little piece of it. She's happy enough with her social sphere and with her life, till Clare shows up. Nor does Clare think about anything but her own desires. They're both cold, manipulative, self-involved women, which is probably why the novel seems to lack emotional resonance; it's hard to care which one will prevail.
If Jack had attacked Clare, they we could say that the novel is about white society turning on a black woman. Or if the black community had rejected Clare's overtures, then we could say that the novel is about the cost of passing. But as it stands? I don't have a clue about what deeper meaning underlies the story.