We went into the coffee shop holding on to one another and I tried to think why we were glad to see each other this time and not before. Once, twelve years ago, we passed like strangers.
A black girl and a white girl meeting in a Howard Johnson's on the road and having nothing to say. One in a blue-and-white triangle waitress hat, the other on her way to see Hendrix.
Now we were behaving like sisters separated for much too long. You got to see everything at Howard Johnson's, and blacks were very friendly with whites in those days. But sitting there with nothing on my plate but two hard tomato wedges wondering about the melting Klondikes it seemed childish remembering the slight. Joseph was on the list of kids to be transferred from the junior high school to another one at some far-out-of-the-way place and I thought it was a good thing until I heard it was a bad thing.
I mean I didn't know. All the schools seemed dumps to me, and the fact that one was nicer looking didn't hold much weight. But the papers were full of it and then the kids began to get jumpy.
I'm not doing anything to you. Swiss cheese? Plot Summary. All Themes Friendship vs. Adulthood Race and Prejudice. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Teach your students to analyze literature like LitCharts does. Detailed explanations, analysis, and citation info for every important quote on LitCharts. The original text plus a side-by-side modern translation of every Shakespeare play. Sign Up.
Already have an account? Sign in. From the creators of SparkNotes, something better. Literature Poetry Lit Terms Shakescleare. Download this LitChart! Teachers and parents! Throughout the story, there are questions about the race of each character. One girl is black and one girl is white.
The race of Maggie is undetermined. She is portrayed as a girl from a lower-middle class family from who desires to assimilate whiteness in order to gain recognition and respect and not be judged by her skin color. Both women are not content with being black or white and in the end Clare die unsatisfied and Irene, although rid of Clare now, has not won anything.
Therefore, Larsen has both characters suffer due to their negligence of others around them while they strived to find who they are. In using passing, Larsen delves into the deeper issues in America, the strive for racial conventions and identity. The fluidity and ambiguity with which both women are able to pass into the white world calls upon the inherent ideas of race. Larsen shows how race is a social construct because despite the fact that white people have ways of distinguishing the blacks from others through different traits, they are easily fooled by two women who pass into their world.
Essays Essays FlashCards. Browse Essays. Sign in. Essay Sample Check Writing Quality. Show More. Related Documents Brien's Book: The Trouble Between Us White woman thought that black women were careless because they started following the black panthers. Read More. Going forward, I need to be aware of applying stereotypes towards characters that are figuratively black or white.
As a reader, my past experiences influenced my interpretations and perverted my ideas of the characters. This dominance can be the institution of racism or even sexism. By inserting my own experiences into this story, I unknowingly reinforced negative structures such as discrimination. When reading this story, as well as throughout my life, I have tried to work against making generalizations and have attempted to challenge racial discrimination.
However, by specifically reading Twyla as black, I ended up strengthening the stereotypes that I work so hard to avoid. Although neglectful mothers can be of any race, I assumed that Twyla must have the black mom because I grew up with black classmates who had distant mothers with different priorities than their children. Similar to Able, mid-to-late twentieth-century black feminist Audre Lorde was also concerned with attacking structures of dominance and bringing awareness to the racism within the feminist community.
At the Second Sex Conference on October 29, , Lorde gave a speech in which she discussed the separation of feminists as a result of racism and homophobia. She argued that in order to work together against sexism, feminists must find unity. Feminists must learn from each other in order to fully challenge patriarchal society, and not get tied down by racism. Personally, I need to be conscientious about how I read characters and how being white influences what I interpret.
With every piece of writing I analyze, I should reflect on how my interpretation may be damaging to a non-dominant group, and take steps to reconcile my perceptions.
One character, named Maggie, plays a significant role because she is assigned different races by both of the characters.
At first, Maggie serves as a point of contention between the two characters, as Twyla believes that Maggie was not black and cannot recall kicking her, while Roberta remains adamant about her stance. Towards the end of the story, the two characters meet after a long period of time and after some small talk their attention is brought back to Maggie. While they argued throughout the story about her race, it ultimately does not matter whether Maggie was black or white—what remains in their minds is how others treated her.
Their mindset moves past race to focus on victimization and guilt. Twyla and Roberta are no different in their concern for Maggie. In the end, they are no longer divided by their race—they both share a common feeling of sorrow and worry about Maggie. Another example of their similarities is that both characters are unified in their desire to kill as well as love their absent mothers Abel Both characters are children of neglect and lived together in St.
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