Passing

“It’s funny about ‘passing’. We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it.“

--Nella Larsen, Passing

'Pardon me,' the woman said pleasantly, 'but I think I know you.' Her slightly husky voice held a dubious note.

I finally read the book Passing. In March, I watched the film on Netflix and was so attracted by its black and white pictures, simple conversations and elegant background music.

An encounter in New York during 1920's changed both Irene and Clare's lives. Having known each other from childhood, Irene and Clare both could 'pass' as white people with their African-American backgrounds.

Impulsive and smart, Clare used ‘passing’ to get the life she wanted through sacrifices and hiding secrets; hesitant and kind, Irene wanted only a secure and happy life with her husband and sons. Irene didn’t need ‘passing’ in her life; she was comfortable with the community and identity she lived in. Through her arguments with her husband, Brian, on parental education, it can be seen that she kept pushing race topics away from her home and her sons’ childhood. She was satisfied with what she was blessed and what she owned. And any other thing related to race could be dangerous and devastating, but not enough to shock her own shelter and happiness.

Her encounter with Clare changed her life completely, step by step. So different from Irene, Clare married a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. Clare's beautiful figure, elegant dressing style, humorous chats, attractive social behaviours, pushed Irene into a confrontation with herself. Irene started questioning her life choice, her relationship with Brian, until all this was too much and she wished that Clare would disappear from her life.

The details descriptions of character’s appearances, clothes and conversations shape their personalities so well and so intriguingly. Paragraphs of Irene’s inner thoughts imply how she persuaded herself to avoid Clare yet desired to meet her again, while at the end, her emotions towards Clare were intertwined with family, responsibilities, values, and of course, race, social status and recognitions of their own skin colours and identities.

In a part where Irene was in sorrow suspecting Brian’s affections towards Clare and in worry about herself and her son's future, vague dialogues and a constant mentioning of ‘shadow’ were set in-between paragraphs, to imply Irene’s desire to escape from this dull and embarrassing socialising situation.

‘It was as if in a house long dim, a match had been struck, showing ghastly shapes where there had been only blurred shadows.’

‘On the floor and the walls the sinking sun threw long, fantastic shadows.’

‘The ripple of talk flowed on. The fire roared. The shadows stretched longer.’

I’m also in love of the descriptions of weather in this book, some of which set at the very first beginning of a chapter. From hot summer till a cold, snowy night, the changes in weather led readers to a tragic ending.

‘Chicago. August. A brilliant day, hot, with a brutal staring sun pouring down rays that were like molten rain.’

‘On Tuesday morning a dome of grey sky rose over the parched city, but the stifling air was not relived by the slivery mist that seemed to hold a promise of rain, which did not fall.’

'A flood of October sunlight streaming in upon her’.

‘October, November had gone. December had come and brought with it a little snow and then a freeze and after that a thaw and some soft pleasant days that had in them a feeling of spring.’

‘The moon was just rising, and far behind the tall buildings a few stars were creeping out’.