olish desire to return for a moment to that life which long ago, and of her own choice, she had left behind” (145). The fact that Clare left the African American community to realize the same kind of social status that Irene achieves completely escapes her. Larsen’s creation of Clare allows this character to “explore avenues, economic or otherwise, that would have been open to [her] in American life but for her racial identity” (Singh 93). Irene’s inability to understand Clare’s plight clearly illustrates the complexities of such explorations. Clare Kendry outwardly seems to be the complete opposite of Irene. She is described as “catlike” by Irene, who believes she is at times “hard and apparently without feeling at all” and that “there was about her an amazing soft malice, hidden well away until provoked” (Larsen 144-45). On the other hand, Irene admires Clare’s “dim suggestion of polite insolence with which few women are born” and considers her “an attractive-looking woman…with those dark, almost black eyes and that wide mouth like a scarlet flower against the ivory of her skin (Larsen 161, 148). It is apparent that Irene is both attracted to and repulsed by Clare Kendry just like she is with her passing. Irene’s observations indicate that “Nella Larsen chooses to tell the story from [her] point of view so that the main interest of the book is not the psychology of the woman who is passing but the complex and ambivalent responses of the woman who could have passed” (Singh 99). This is illustrated by Irene’s responses to Clare’s characteristics as well as her passing. Instead of concentrating on Clare’s experience, Larsen’s decision to concentrate on Irene’s view of Clare’s actions make Passing a more provocative novel. Although Irene’s view of Clare may be biased, ...
