Passing Nella Larsen Summary

“ Passing” by Nella Larsen explores racial identity and the internal struggle of biracial women in the 1920’s. This was a time of burgeoning artistry and pride in the African American community, but was also still a great time of discrimination. There two women faced the ultimate decision of which culture they would be a part of. This changed their social standings, lifestyles, and in the end, quality of life. The 1920’s were a time of racism and discrimination. Many African American’s originally from the South moved to New York City, more specifically, Harlem. This was known as the great migration. At the same time, the Harlem Renaissance, a cultural awakening for African Americans in the artistic industries such as music, art, and writing was taking shape. Harlem grew into a cultural arts center for the black population. The literary portion of this movement was born out of an idea for a simple dinner party. In 1924. Johnson, a magazine editor was looking to honor a young author. With “about twenty guests of white publishers, editors, literary critics, …show more content…
Together the two of them have two sons. Raising them, Irene made a choice to protect them fro th racism in the world. She wanted to have a perfect family. When they were sitting down for dinner one night, Ted, on of their sons asked, “Dad, why do they only lynch coloured people?” with Brian’s reply, “ because they hate them son.” (102) Irene was furious. She spent her entire time as a mother keeping racism out of her children’s lives. When dinner finished and the kids went upstairs, Irene made this comment to Brian, “ I do wish that you wouldn’t talk about lynching before Ted and Junior[...] there’ll be time for them to learn about such horrible things when they’re older.” Brian was infuriated and can’t understand why Irene doesn’t want the kids to know. He thought that they should know the struggles in the world at a young age. This was Brian’s view on