The ending of Nella Larsen's Passing is profoundly ambiguous because the precise circumstances surrounding Clare Kendry's death are left deliberately unclear, serving to grant her agency and subvert traditional narrative conventions.
The Nature of the Ambiguity
The ambiguity centers on Clare Kendry's fall from a sixth-story window during a party. The narrative does not explicitly state whether Clare was pushed by Irene Redfield, fell accidentally, or intentionally jumped. This leaves readers to grapple with several possibilities:
- Accidental Fall: Perhaps Clare simply lost her balance or was caught in the crowd's commotion.
- Suicide: Driven by the intense pressure of her life, the exposure of her "passing," or the disintegration of her relationships.
- Murder: Potentially pushed by Irene, who harbored complex emotions of jealousy, resentment, and attraction towards Clare, especially given Clare's threat to Irene's carefully constructed life.
Larsen's Intentional Ambiguity and Agency
Nella Larsen's decision to craft an ambiguous end for Clare Kendry is a crucial artistic choice that provides Clare with a profound sense of agency. By refusing to definitively resolve Clare's fate, Larsen challenges and subverts established literary traditions:
- Empowering Clare's Destiny: Larsen forbids the conventions of white-authored narratives that often imposed specific, predetermined fates or outcomes for Black characters, particularly those concerning "happiness" or resolution.
- Defying Narrative Expectations: The ambiguity prevents Clare's life and choices from being neatly categorized or judged within societal or racial expectations. Her fate remains unbound by the rigid definitions of race, class, and gender that constrained her during her life.
- Protecting Agency: This narrative choice ensures that Clare's story, even in its conclusion, is not fully controlled by external forces or literary tropes, allowing her character a greater degree of independence even in death.
Thematic Depth and Reader Engagement
The unresolved ending enhances the novel's thematic depth, forcing readers to actively engage with the complex issues at play:
- Racial and Social Identity: The ambiguity mirrors the uncertainties and fluidities of "passing" itself, where identities are constantly constructed and deconstructed, leaving much unspoken and unknown.
- Unresolved Desires and Conflicts: It reflects the unresolved tensions in Irene and Clare's relationship, encompassing repressed desires, jealousy, and the societal pressures that shape their lives.
- Critique of Societal Constraints: By leaving Clare's fate open, Larsen subtly critiques the destructive nature of a society that offers no clear or satisfying path for individuals who defy its rigid boundaries. The uncertainty reflects the impossible choices and the lack of true freedom experienced by characters like Clare.
The ambiguous ending thus serves not just as a narrative twist, but as a powerful commentary on the themes of racial identity, personal freedom, and the destructive consequences of societal expectations in 1920s America.
