Perspectives in Literature

The ending of this book stays a mystery of who pushed Clare out the window. Or was she even pushed? Reading this book I see there was alot of disagreements between Clare and Irene even with such a close friendship. I infered that either someone would get hurt or killed while reading this book with the amount of jealousy that was going back to back. But it was still a shocking ending.

I was not surprised at the way Passing ended. I expected that either Clare or Irene would die. This was like a jealousy of two friends. I felt like Clare envied Irene’s life and felt like she would be more happier if she lived out her life like hers instead of living in a lie (“passing”). Irene’s life wasn’t all “peachy keen” either. Her and her husband went through issues about their kids and especially about Clare. In the end, I believe that Irene pushed Clare out the window because she wanted to get rid of her, once and for all. What a friend …

My first reading journal ever!!! holy crap, hope I still get credit for it. Have to say, the ending of Passing did not surprise me one bit. We all knew Irene was going to finish off Clare one way or another. Clare was just being too disrespectful to both the white and black community and Irene was not having any of it. There were plenty of “foreshadowing to this event in the story too, like how Irene drops a cup and shatters it and says how she always wanted to get rid of it. Irene “pushed” Clare out the window to restore her social order, she’s only human after all. Isn’t that what humans do best? Getting rid of things that disrupts the norm of everyday life?

I never expected the end of passing to be like the way it was. Not because it was shocking or sudden, but because a lot of the issues were left unsolved.  Irene was particularly paranoid towards the end and her assumption wasn’t confirmed nor denied. The interesting part to me was if Brian and Clare were really having an affair. I wasn’t really interested and figuring out what would happen if Jack found out that Clare was black. Only because his reaction is expected, he’d be angry and most likely leave her, and Clare  expected, going by what she says, wouldn’t care that much what happens. Although the point of the book was probably not even the least bit about the affair, but I kinda wanted that to be the revelation at the end and how it’ll affect Irene’s relationship with Clare. I don’t think anybody needed to die, that didn’t really solve anything, it just further adds to the questions. Can’t say I’m satisfied but can’t say I’m upset either, it just left me with a “wait what…” kinda reaction simply because it was the one thing that wasn’t expected.