Re-encounter gives the reader a more in-depth look at the complex personality of Irene.  She came off as sweet and  not materialistic in the first section, but now we are seeing that may just be the façade to a more selfish and spoiled woman.  It is almost like there are two sides to Irene; the gentile, white, giving woman who loves her husband and family and the real Irene, who is a black woman passing as white who is manipulative, selfish, and hiding her real self from/lying to everyone closest to her. This double life is confusing and bipolar. The reader sees just how selfish and materialistic Irene is when she is discussing the possibility of moving to Brazil, "Couldn't he see, even now, that it had been best? Not for her, oh no... she had never really considered herself- for him and the boys." (57) Irene likes to portray that she disliked the idea of moving because of her sons when she makes it clear throughout the book that she very much enjoys the finer things in life that only her white life in America can provide.