Passing

Because of my final paper is focused on Nella Larsen's book Quicksand, I've been thinking a lot more about the depth in the book Passing. What is truly striking about it is that I had never observed so many levels to the title. How does the word passing connect to the book? Well, there is the most obvious answer: the book is about black women who pass as white. But writers are generally not that straight-forward when they title a novel. So what else could passing mean? It is an adjective describing satisfactory performance (often found in this form when describing a test). The book, leaving Irene's actions so vague that she is passing in this way (passing meaning free). Or perhaps she has destroyed the unification of the white and black race, Clare, and thus, in her mind, she is doing satisfactory work. Passing is also a verb, meaning to go by. How often did the white people simply go by the white people and vice versa, the blacks go by the whites without intermixing. Perhaps this is what is meant by passing and that is the way things (in the mind of society) should remain. Therefore, Clare was ultimately doomed as a character because she never just passed one race or another. She didn't conform in either category being a mulatto. Passing can also mean to spread something, such as passing a cold. Therefore, the interaction between the races could be compared to a disease- leading to Clare's destruction. And though I'm sure its not the only other perscription to the word "passing", there is the fact that Clare dies and Clare is therefore on the verge of passing from life to death. There are so many levels to the word passing.