The passing

The Passing by Nella Larsen
1. Based on the language in the passage below, what kind of woman is Irene? What does she value? Please be sure to tie your answer to the language of the text. In addition, provide a quote from another section of the text that supports your assertions.

“It was only that she wanted him to be happy, resenting, however, his inability to be so with things as they were, and never acknowledging that though she did want him to be happy, it was only in her own way and by some plan of hers for him that she truly desired him to be so. Nor did she admit that all other plans, all other ways, she regarded as menaces, more or less indirect, to that security of place and substance which she insisted upon for her sons and in a lesser degree for herself” (1110).

2. Theorize a bit: Why does Clare insist that Gertrude and Irene meet her husband? What does the encounter reveal? Provide quotes from the text to support your assertions.

3. What does the following passage suggest about Brian? Please be sure to tie your answer to the language of the text. In addition, provide a quote from another section of the text that supports your assertion.

“She hoped that he had been comfortable and not too lonely without her and the boys. Not so lonely that that old, queer, unhappy restlessness had begun again within him; that craving for some place strange and different, which at the beginning of her marriage she had had to make such stenuous efforts to repress, and which yet faintly alarmed her, though it now sprang up at gradually lessening intervals” (1103)

4. Do Clare and Brian have traits in common? Explain.

5. Based on what you’ve read, how does Nella Larsen want you to feel about “passing”? Connect your answer to a passage from the novel. (Be sure to type the passage so that I can follow your answer. )