Irene Lou in Passing by Nella Larsen (1929)
Irene is the protagonist in the novel, Passing, by Nella Larsen that was written in 1929. The novel has three sections and Irene features all through, with her childhood friend, Clare. Clare is married to Jack, who does not know that she is black because is too light-skinned, just like Irene (Larsen and Kaplan).The light-skinned black ladies pass for whites, and Irene is critical of Clare's efforts to be white. At some point, she breaks off all communication with her, including tearing Clare's letters without reading them when she learned that Clare was acting white.
Irene is active in Harlem's social scene, and one moment, after Clare forcibly visited her, they go out, and Clare likes it. Irene is anxious that the over indulgence of Clare might expose her to Jack, who did not know about her blackness. Jack is unsuspecting, at first because of his ignorance on the possibility of passing, or colorism. One day, Clare, Irene, and a friend were with Jack, and he expressed his contempt and prejudices to against black people, and the ladies had to support his views to protect the relationship between Jack and Clare.
Later on, when Irene gets married to Brian, a relationship develops between Clare and Brian, and Irene is very suspicious that the two were making out. However, her friendship with Clare was deep, and she did not mind it, as long as Jack did not know. The catch for Irene was that, if Jack discovers the affair between Clare and Brian (Irene’s husband), there was a high chance of divorce, which would most definitely mean that Brian will divorce Irene and marry Clare.
Irene was constantly caught between hard places and other hard places. Her internal conflicts spanned from the color of her skin to love and friendship. For starters, she loved and cared for Clare and her marriage with Jack. Her kind descriptions on Clare, even with some overtones, raised suspicions of Irene being a homosexual lady. Perhaps this was true, and if it was, it serves to explain why she did not feel so much jealousy when her best friend started hanging out wither husband, Brian.
Irene’s intimacy with Clare thrived on its secrecy, and, as the adage goes, when love is turned inside out, it becomes hatred. When Irene found out that her childhood friend is passing for a white lady, and that she was married to Jack, a white man, she was conflicted in that she was losing her dearest friend to ‘whiteness.' When she had to act as a ‘passer', to the point of supporting Jack's undertones on black people so as to protect Clare's blackness, it broke her very much and she decided to break free from her.
On the other hand, after Clare forced herself back into Irene's life, it became apparent that she was enjoying life in Harlem, going by the number of times she frequented the downtown. This must have been a good win for Irene, despite her fears that Jack will discover her fascination with the city. To rub salt in an old wound, Clare started making out with Irene's husband, pushing Irene to a strong internal conflict. She was caught in a dilemma; either to face Brian or make him drop Clare (which would mean Irene was losing Clare again) or keeping quiet and pretend that everything was okay, which she did.
Irene was endeared to Harlem, and she was happy that it had the same effect on Clare. Harlem gave a sense of belonging to black people, as they would live without a constant reminder that they are black. Irene had grown accustomed to life in Harlem, as it taught her the kind of battles to fight. She was ready to fight racial prejudice, but she was not out to fight to keep Brian. On the contrary, it made her fear to be a loser. In the end, Jack discovers that Clare is black, and calls her dirty nigger, to which Clare responded by dropping herself off the building to death before Irene could save her.
Janie had run away with a young man, but she became bored and unhappy. She decided to go back home, where the local women made fun of her, that she had been swindled by the boyfriend. However, she narrates that the reasons why she came back were that she was not happy living with someone and that she was out to seek peace. Under the pear tree, she discovers that natures falls into place with everything without a struggle, and figures out that, that would be an ideal situation for her, to find herself being absorbed in the naturalness of life.
The way the birds and the insects related with the trees and nature was perfect. The novelist notes "he thousand sister calyxes arch to meet the loving embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree", poetic prose that captures the ideas in the mind of Janie on the peace of nature (Hurston). Her experience under the pear tree changed her forever, as it threw her in a constant pursuit of peace and happiness.
The writer gives Janie a language conflict, where she struggles to keep up with standardized language. Instead, her vernacular influence is very evident in her speech and this can be taken as a symbol of her internal conflict; the yearning for happiness and peace. When placed in the context of love, Janie wants something simple and complementary. She wants to have a boyfriend or husband who appreciates her as a human being, but not a woman.
The tree takes a female role albeit with rights of its own. The bees and birds go home to the tree every day and there is no single disagreement. The bees feel at home on the tree and nature has sorted itself so well that it looks like a real relationship. On the contrary, in real human relationships, people disagree and subjugate each other. The novel is set at a time when gender and racial subjugation was at its worst, and it might be once on the reasons why Janie feels disoriented by the deeds of men. Placed in the context of the whole book, Janie’s experience under the pear tree breaks the yoke of slavery that had tied down her mother and Nanny.
Janie's grandmother was raped by her master and became pregnant with Janie's mother. She had to hide from her master's wife when he went to war to escape torture and losing her kid. As if by some dark spell, Janie's mother was raped too, and she could not take it. So she became nuts and lost herself, leaving grandma to raise Janie. When the experience under the pear tree is reconciled with her family history and story, it becomes a moment of freedom, a moment that she discovered peace and happiness.
Works Cited
Hurston, Zora Neale. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Perennial Library, 1990. Print.
Larsen, Nella and Carla Kaplan. Passing. Print.
