Answer the following in complete paragraphs using textual detail and quotation. Make connections to other
writers or texts whenever it seems helpful to do so.
- The metaphor of passing accrues several layers of meaning. What are they? How do they relate to each
other? - Whose story is this? Clare’s or Irene’s?
- What does this passage mean: “[Irene] was caught between two allegiances, different, yet the same.
Herself. Her race. Race: The thing that bound and suffocated her. Whatever steps she took, or if she took none
at all, something would be crushed. A person or the race. Clare, herself, or the race. Or, it might be all three.” - It has been suggested that Passing uses race more as a device to sustain suspense than as a compelling
social issue. What is the relation of race to subjective experience in the text? - What is the significance of narrative endings in Larsen? Why does Passing refuse to specify how Clare is
killed and who is responsible? - Does the heightened attention to color and clothing and atmosphere in Passing makes us wonder if Larsen’s
concentration on mulatto characters indicates an unmistakable “privileging” of whiteness.