AO5 in Totality Flashcards
(25 cards)
How is Clare’s psychology described?
Clare’s psychology is inscrutable.
(Tate)
What does the novel focus on more?
The novel is more about class than it is about race.
(Joyce Ann Joyce)
What happens to dream-like ideals in practice?
Although such dream-like ideals materialised on paper, they failed to materialise in practice.
(Rodrigues)
What must happen for the American dream to merit its label?
The gap between white people and people of colour must collapse.
(Rodrigues)
How is the American dream perceived?
The picture I have of the American dream is one of an illusion.
(Gloria Naylor)
What is ‘Passing’ about?
Passing is a novel about two women whose choices were opposite and whose fates were strangely intertwined.
(Bernstein)
What do Larsen’s protagonists do for social survival?
They assume false identities that ensure social survival but result in psychological suicide.
(Wall)
What does Clare’s whiteness lead to?
In her whiteness, Clare is not free; she has taken on an existence that assures her emotional and spiritual captivity.
(Greenidge)
What is Irene Redfield invested in?
Irene Redfield is deeply invested in her sense of authenticity as a member of the black bourgeoisie.
(Askew)
What does Clare Kendry find after returning to the Black community?
Clare Kendry finds no peace, rest, or loyalty.
(Little)
What do Irene and Nick possess?
Both possess a sense of pedigree that makes them feel superior to the main characters.
(Charles Lewis)
What did Nella Larsen’s career focus on?
Nella Larsen made a career of not quite belonging.
(Michelle Dean)
How is Clare described?
Clare is a kept silhouette.
(Dean)
How is the American Dream characterized?
The American Dream is an enigma.
(Rodrigues)
What happens to one’s identity under racial oppression?
One’s identity becomes unraveled in the face of unrelenting racial oppression.
(James Baldwin)
What does Brian’s desire to relocate reveal?
Brian’s desire to relocate to Brazil reveals his desire to escape the American colour line.
(M. Anderson)
Why does Irene have an aversion to Brazil?
Irene’s aversion to Brazil comes from her need for fixed racial categories.
(M. Anderson)
What does the absence of love do to Irene’s marriage?
The absence of love reduces their marriage to a selfish arrangement for Irene’s security.
(M. Anderson)
What does Irene do to refute stereotypes?
Irene ‘over-mothers’ her children and husband in an attempt to refute stereotypes of black women as detached mothers.
(Eva McKnight)
What moral superiority does Irene assume?
Irene assumes a moral superiority over Clare because she is grounded in the black bourgeoisie whereas Clare’s father was an alcoholic janitor.
(Fisher)
What does Larsen illuminate about Irene?
Larsen illuminates Irene’s colourist prejudices and how her own lighter skin tone helps to solidify her position with the social hierarchy.
(Wilson)
What is Irene’s attraction to Clare indicative of?
Irene’s physical attraction to Clare is perhaps her attraction to whiteness.
(Eva McKnight)
What does Larsen illustrate through Irene?
Through Irene, Larsen illustrates the irreparable damage and self-hating effects of the white gaze.
(Eva McKnight)
What does the privileged paleness of the two women lead to?
The privileged paleness these two women share leaves them in a racial limbo, cursed in their ethnic fluidity.
(Eva McKnight)
