some thoughts on “Passing”

In “Passing”, Irene makes a statement which I think is relevant to the novels that we’ve read so far. She says “Its funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it. It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it. We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it.”(56) This element of blacks enabling passing although they may resent it or disagree with it is interesting to me. In Puddnhead and The House Behind The Cedars, we’re not presented with a Black character who is obviously opposed to passing or concerned about the effects of passing on the rest of the black community. However, I find it interesting that in both stories, there was a central Black character(who doesn’t or cannot pass) who enables the passing of another. For example, Roxy cannot pass because everyone is away of her lineage but she makes Tom’s passing possible and although Frank finds out that Rena is passing with her brother, he decides not to expose her secret. It can be argued that in both of these instances, the people who enabled to passing had an overwhelming love or sense of duty to the passing but what can be said for Irene’s complicity? Although her relationship to Clare is complicated and cannot be whittled down to one emotion or the other, she does not have an real obligation to Clare, besides that of their shared race.

thinking about the uncanny in puddnhead and hbtc

Prof. Parham made a comment in class today that really brought some themes together for me. She said that Tryon hearing Rena’s voice as he slept and dreamt of Rena was an example of the uncanny, of realizing that what we think we know is actually completely unknown or unfamiliar. I was thinking about this before (for my paper) and this brought up an new set of ideas. I had been thinking of the idea of the uncanny as the ability to pass (because you’re physical appearance enables you to be seen as the same). I don’t know if that makes sense but to restate it, I understood the ability to pass as what was uncanny and not the revelation that one has been passing. To push this idea further, in Puddnhead, I interpreted Puddnhead Wilson’s thoughts about Roxy’s appearance (“to all intents and purposes, Roxy was as white as anybody, but the one sixteenth of her which was black outvoted the other fifteen parts and made her a negro”) as a moment in which he looks at her and sees something familiar but in the same thought understands her unfamiliarity.
However, after Prof. Parham’s remark in class today, I’m beginning to understand that revelation is key to the uncanny. Because without the revelation, there is no disruption of what was previously believed to be true.

           For me, one of the most interesting parts of Pudd’nhead Wilson was the dynamic between Roxy and “Tom”, her son.  I think it struck me because so far in class we’ve discussed passing as something that effects the psyche of the one who is passing.  He or she must give up ties to his or her family.  In this way, the peron who is passing mst hide his or her emotions and be very aware of his or her relationship with others.  In the beginning of this narrative we understand the passing of Tom through Roxy.  She is the one who must give up her ties to her son.  “She saw her darling gradually cease from being her son” (23).   Because of this point of view, we can begin to understand the pain that passing bring with it not only for the person who is passing but for those people invested in the one who is passing. 

       It is also interesting to see how this relationship evolves throughout the novel.  At one point Twain tells us that Roxy has developed a hatred for her son and wants Tom to never make her remember that she gave birth to him (52).  As the reader, we understand this feeling.  Tom has been cruel to Roxy, and as far as we are concerned, he doesn’t deserve any kindness from his birth mother.  I kind of admire the fact that she doesn’t give into Tom’s awful behavior.  However, I can’t help feeling sad for Roxy.  She performs the act of giving up her son so he could avoid the awful life of a slave.  She gave up having a relationship with her son because she let him have a better life than she would ever be able to give him. 

Twain and Lacan

One of the first things that I picked up on when I was reading Puddn’head Wilson, is the importance of babies at the beginning of the book. In the first chapter, when Twain is introducing the characters, he points out whether or not they have children and how that has affected theit lives. It seemed strange that he added the bit about if they were childless while he was introducing them morally and professionally. The significance of the child, particularly the baby reveals itself later when Roxy, in a moment of desperation, decides to switch her baby for Driscoll’s. A switch like this is only possible with infants because they have yet to establish a real personality, and because they are not cognizant of what happens to them. The idea of the infant as a human that has yet to come into being ties directly back to Lacan and the “Mirror Stage”. There is a quote at the end of chapter 3 that illustrates this point. Twain writes, “all Roxy had to do was to get them both into a gale of laughter when he came about; then their faces were mainly cavities exposing gums, and he was gone before the spasm passed and the little creatures resumed a human aspect”. The choice of words here is particularly interesting. The word cavities makes me think dark and mysterious, there is no way of knowing what cavities hold. Using this to describe humans compares the babies to something unknown. Also, he says that they resumed a ‘human aspect’. Tom and Chambers don’t have real identities and are not real people. They are merely lifeforms that resemble humans but have yet to develop into