How Jack Bellews Speech Affects the Plot of Nella Larsens Passing

The term "passing" is shorthand for a racial passing which means people of one race passing for another. Nella Larsen's Passing is the story about two light-skinned women, who both have African blood. Clare Kendry is one of them who chooses and succeeds at "passing" and Irene Redfield is one who doesn't. They drive into each other twelve years later in a restaurant and Clare invites Irene to the tea party. The tea party which appears in the beginning of the story plays an important role throughout of the story because Jack Bellew enters the story at that moment. Jack is the white man who has a strong revulsion to African-Americans. He marries Clare, without knowing her secret ancestry. Jack's statements at the tea party lead the main characters' transformation throughout the story and shape the ending as well. Jack's disgust in colored people and assertion of his hate toward Negroes impact Clare Kendry, his wife, to re-estimate her value of life. When Clare and Irene run into each other at the restaurant, Clare is confident of her `passing' and is even sorry to those who didn't do the same thing. Passing to the white society is "even worth the price" to Clare (160). She believes that wealth is everybody's final desire and by passing she achieves that in a "frightfully easy" way (158). However she doubts her confidence on her passed life since the tea party in her house. At the tea party, Jack says words which humiliates African-Americans and shows how he hates Negroes (171-172). Against his statements, Irene exposes that Jack is "surrounded by three black devils" (172). It is significant that Irene includes Clare as one of the "black devils." This implies that Irene classifies Clare as a part of the black community even... ...at Jack didn't show up frequently during the story but his words which had spoken at the tea party remain and continuously affect Irene and Clare. After the tea party Clare finds her happiness is no longer coming from being an upper class and having wealth but she confirms that she belongs to the black society and is happy to mingle with them. Also Irene who always concerning safety and put it up as the most important thing in her life turns out to thinking about others beside security; those are considering herself and relationship with husband . Clare's death, the ending of the story, was already foreseen at the tea party by Jack and followed by his words. Without doubt Jack Bellew was the character who opens up the story and also, finishes up the story. Work cited Nella, Larsen. Quicksand and Passing. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University press, 2002