Passing: Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

The narrator opens this section by saying that Irene’s memories of the dance afterward seem unimportant to her. From this frame of retrospect, the narrator lists events that Irene remembers, starting with when Irene tells Brian about the fact that Clare is coming to the Negro Welfare League dance. Brian smiles contemptuously to mask his annoyance.

The next memory is Irene coming downstairs just before the dance to find Clare standing in the living room with Brian. Clare wears a black taffeta dress and looks extremely beautiful. Irene feels plain in comparison. She then regrets that she did not tell Clare to wear something inconspicuous, in order to avoid attention that could cause her to be recognized. Irene wonders what Brian will think of Clare’s showy outfit, but he does not seem concerned. Clare explains that they have introduced themselves to each other while Irene was upstairs.

In the car, Clare expresses her excitement, which annoys Irene. Once they are at the dance, Irene watches Clare dance with both white and black men, including with Brian. Later in the night, Irene talks with Hugh Wentworth. Together, they are watching the diverse crowd, a mix of ages, races, sizes, etc., from a box above.

Irene turns to Hugh and recites a nursery rhyme that speaks to the diversity of the crowd. Hugh says that it seems like “everybody” is there. He then states that he is trying to figure out the “name, status, and race” of a certain beautiful blond woman, meaning Clare. Irene explains that they are childhood friends, and that Clare had mentioned wanting to meet Hugh.

Hugh remarks that Clare is dancing with more black men than white. Meanwhile, he says, all the white women in the room, including his own wife, Bianca, are dancing with black men. Irene counters that it must be because black men are better dancers than white men. Hugh disagrees, saying he thinks it’s some other kind of attraction, especially to black men with very dark skin. Hugh points out one such man, Ralph Hazelton, and asks Irene if she finds him especially attractive.

Irene says that she does not find Ralph especially handsome, and argues that she thinks the others do not either. Instead, she proposes that they feel “emotional excitement” because very dark skin is “at the opposite end of the pole from all…accustomed notions of beauty.” She says that the same thing happens with black women and white men. Hugh tells Irene that he thinks her hypothesis is interesting, and says they will have to talk about it more sometime in the future. Hugh says Clare is the perfect example of Irene’s theory.

Then Hugh lights a cigarette and asks if it’s true that Clare is a perfect example, implying that she might not be as white as she appears. Irene laughs and tells Hugh that he is clever, and asks what he thinks. Hugh says he cannot tell, and says that he sometimes thinks he can tell and other times he is stumped. Irene assures him that no one can just tell someone’s race for certain just by looking at them.

Irene tells Hugh about a woman, Dorothy Thompkins, that she met several times before realizing she was white. Irene tells Hugh she can’t pinpoint exactly what tipped her off. Hugh says that he understands, and that “lots of people pass all the time.” Irene resists this, saying that lots of black people pass as white, but it is harder for white people to pass as black. Hugh admits he’d never thought of that.

At the end of the dance, Brian offers to drop Irene off first and then take Clare home. Irene tells him he does not have to do so, because Irene asked Bianca Wentworth to take her. Brian worries that Irene has told the Wentworths that Clare is black, but Irene says that she told them nothing, and that it is better for Clare to be taken home by white people anyway. Brian shrugs. The narrator ends the section by noting that, besides these select memories, the dance blurs together in Irene’s mind.