Joanah Eresechima - Passing and the Second Self

Nortwick’s Somewhere I Have Never Travelled has once again made me think about other pieces of media I’ve consumed that may include a second self. It brought me back to a book assigned to me in an honors class I took my freshman year that I ended up really enjoying and have read multiple times ever since. The book Passing by Nella Larsen is about the relationship between Irene Redfield and Clare Bellow, who are both white-passing African American women living in the 1920s. As Nortwick notes in his book, the second self is someone who is complementary to another character, with each person having something the other person lacks. This is a perfect description for Irene and Clare because despite their similar complexion, they have very different worldviews and generally referred to as foils of each other. Irene, as the first self, is a cautious woman who takes pride in her black identity, only choosing to pass when in public white-only spaces and is very involved in the black community, even marrying a black man. Clare, as the second self, is a much riskier person, as she passes as white at all times and is married to a racist white man who has no idea about her black identity. Due to these differences, Irene hold resentment towards Clare as she finds her irresponsible for putting herself in danger. However, Irene always mentions this pull she feels towards Clare, almost as if she can’t step away from her even if she tried. This is shown multiple times in the book, the first time being when Clare sends her a letter after 2 years of being apart, asking if they could rekindle their friendship. Irene is frustrated with Clare due to a previous encounter where she was introduced to Clare’s racist husband and had to carefully thread carefully maneuver the situation as to not reveal her and Clare’s true identities. She ends up not replying to the letter but when Clare suddenly shows up at her door, she is rushed with positive emotions. This matches with other characteristics of the second self where there is this strange connection between the two selves and there seems to be intense feelings the two parts feel for one another.

Now that I’ve established Clare as Irene’s second self, the next question to ask is what exactly is Clare’s role in Irene’s potential growth? Clare’s inclusion in the story begins internal and external conflict for Irene as she has to confront her identity as a passing black woman and also Irene believes Clare may be interested in her husband. It seems like they represent the dichotomy between security and freedom. Acceptance and integration of her second self would mean she would embrace the danger of her black identity and continue to protect Clare despite her “betrayal” to her community. This, of course, starts with the death of the second self. At the end of the book, Clare’s husband finds out that she’s black and confronts Irene and her husband, Brian, who were also at a party. Clare seems unconcerned and Irene, believing this is because she’s already having an affair with Brian, rushes towards her and puts a hand on Clare’s arm. It’s unknown whether this was Irene’s doing or Clare fainting, but she falls out the window she was standing near, which leads to her death. While the death of the second self is usually meant to spur growth in the first self, I don’t believe Irene would be capable of growing here. First off, the book ends with the death, meaning we don’t know what happens after. But also, due to the nature of the society she lives in, with it being hostile to black people, Clare’s death may be what solidifies for Irene that her choice to remain stable was the right decision. With her gone, the issue of the possible affair and the conflict within herself about her race is essentially solved. The stability in Irene’s life that had disappeared with Clare’s introduction to the story was back so no further action would need to be taken.