Passing

Plot Summary
[WARNING: POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD]

From its Goodreads description:

"Irene Redfield, the novel's protagonist, is a woman with an enviable life. She and her husband, Brian, a prominent physician, share a comfortable Harlem town house with their sons. Her work arranging charity balls that gather Harlem's elite creates a sense of purpose and respectability for Irene. But her hold on this world begins to slip the day she encounters Clare Kendry, a childhood friend with whom she had lost touch. Clare—light-skinned, beautiful, and charming—tells Irene how, after her father's death, she left behind the black neighborhood of her adolescence and began passing for white, hiding her true identity from everyone, including her racist husband. As Clare begins inserting herself into Irene's life, Irene is thrown into a panic, terrified of the consequences of Clare's dangerous behavior. And when Clare witnesses the vibrancy and energy of the community she left behind, her burning desire to come back threatens to shatter her careful deception. Brilliantly plotted and elegantly written, Passing offers a gripping psychological portrait of emotional extremity."

Letters in Passing
There are two distinctive letters in Passing, both sent from Clare to Irene. The novel opens with the image of a stack of letters—Clare’s outstanding not only because of its distinct appearance but because of the unique state of dread it inspires in Irene. Irene opens the next letter (in order of appearance in the narrative) on page 34 of the Norton Critical Edition of the novel. This comes after Irene and the reader both meet Clare’s husband, John Bellew, and discover his deep seeded hatred for Black people. Upon realizing Clare had no intention of apologizing, instead restating joy at their reunion, Irene destroys the letter.

These letters complicate the chronology of the book: while they are both attempts to reach out and restore a relationship with Irene, the opening letter of the novel is actually the second letter in the chronological version of events. Because the first letter transports Irene back to “That Time in Chicago,” Larsen truly centers much of Passing around letters (Larsen 7).

Pages Analyzing Passing
Tone Shifts in Letter Writing

How Trustworthy are Letters?

The Public/Private and Interior/Exterior Binaries of the Letter

The Opening Letter of Passing

Outward Layers: Fashion in Conjunction with the Envelope

The Erotic Over/Undertones of The Letter

The Dialects of Passing

The Human Stain and Passing as Metanarratives