One of the issues that seems to bother Clair throughout the
novel is passing as a white person. A topic that we discussed in class, but
found interesting was that, although she disapproves of Irene passing as white,
she in fact passes as white herself. For example, to get out of the hot sun,
Irene passes as a white woman in order to get into a hotel with air
conditioning that she wouldn’t have gotten into otherwise. This raises the
moral implications of passing. Is it okay to pass as you wish, or is that
disrespectful to your race? Or can you not help it based on the way that you
were raised?
One of the most interesting aspects in the novel is what
race each of the two main characters align themselves to, and how it affects
their perception of what is right and wrong and of their race. For example,
after her mother died, Clair went to live with her white aunts and was raised
passing as a white women. From this, we can conclude that she identifies with
the white race, and lives vicariously as a black woman through Irene when she
is back with her. She does this by going to the primarily African American
party with Irene, even though Irene doesn’t think that it is safe for her to
go. Irene, on the other hand, was raised as a black woman and you can tell she
only passes as white for her convenience, as she is uncomfortable with Claire’s
notion of identifying with the white race. Irene identifies herself as black,
which is the opposite of Irene.
The conflict here is who is right? I don’t think that Claire
is betraying her negroe blood because she was raised by her two white aunts and
sincerely believes that she is a white women with some black blood. On the
otherhand, Irene believes that she is a black women that can pass as white if
she needs to. Neither women is wrong, but their situation has defined how they
view their race.
I think that the homosexual attraction that Irene has
towards Clair also plays an important role in the novel. For example, Irene
uses words like beautiful, pale, and dark eyes to make the reader aware that
she is sexually attracted to Claire. Also, she is jealous of her husband (not necessarily
Claire) when she believes that her husband and Claire are having an affair.
Also, passing in this novel has two forms: passing as a
white/black person and passing as a heterosexual. Irene struggles with passing
as a heterosexual because she is always uneasy when being around Irene, as she
describes the way that Claire looks at her makes her uncomfortable. Similarly
to her not wanting people to find out that she is black when she is trying to
get into a cool building, maybe she thinks that she will not be able to live a
normal life if people found out that she was a lesbian.
