thoughts about Irene

After reading the second part of Passing, I must say that Irene’s character seems really ambiguous to me. At first I thought she was an intelligent and mature woman, aware of her African American roots. She was proud of herself and had married a clearly non-white man and at the same time judging Clare for marrying a white man that called her a ni**er. It seemed as she was disgusted by that but nevertheless she also pretends to be white. She would never give up her lifestyle that she got because she “passed” as white. She clearly states her own ambiguity about passing: “It’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it.”

In my opinion, Irene really wants to stand up and speak for herself but she is not able to do it, she is weak and aware of what could happen if people find out who she really is.

--- Karolina Huljic