Passing Quotes Flashcards
“you’re the only white man here”
Felise says to John when he comes to the final party
“his voice was a snarl and a moan, an expression of rage and pain”
John finds out that Clare is African American
“happiness, love or some wild ecstasy that she had never known”
These 3 things must be sacrificed for security
“What are friends for, if not to help bear our sins?”
Irene reflects on her friendship with Wentworth
“shattered cup”
Irene at the party
“curious”
why white people come to NDL dances
“exquisite, torturing emotion”
description of love
“in the short space of half an hour all of life had changed, lost its colour, its vividness, its whole meaning”
ending
“I don’t dislike them, I hate them”
Bellew’s attitude to black people
“strangers in their ways and means of living”
“strangers in their desires and ambitions”
“strangers even in their racial conciousness”
Ways in which Clare and Irene are strangers
“she was bound to her by those very ties of race, which, for all her repudiation of them, Clare had been unable to completely sever”
Clare and Irene’s racial ties
“city of the future”
Bellew’s description of NYC
“an impression of latent physical power”
description of John Bellew
“a black jew, he calls himself”
“you’d die laughing if you saw him”
Gertrude on the jewish ex-classmate
“hazardous business”
Irene’s description of passing
“nobody wants a dark child”
Gertrude’s attitude to babies’ skin colour
“foreboding fog”
Pathetic fallacy on the day Clare and Irene are supposed to meet in Chicago
“frightfully easy”
Clare’s description of passing
“no matter how often she came among them she still remained someone apart”
Clare
“Clare clinging to Brian’s other arm… provocative upward glance”
Clare and Brian going in to final party
“do anything, hurt anybody, throw anything away”
Clare on what she’d do to get where she wants to be
“being a mother is the cruellest thing in the world”
C on being a mother
“nearly dies of terror.. for fear that she might be dark”
Clare on her daughter (Margery)
“ringing bells”
Clare’s laughter
“ivory mask”
Clare’s face
“tempting mouth”
“seductive smile”
Clare’s mouth
“foolish desire”
Clare’s wish to return to the community she left behind
“stepping always on the edge of danger”
Clare
“wide mouth like a scarlet flower against the ivory of her skin”
Clare’s mouth
“no allegiance beyond her own immediate desires”
Clare
“She belonged in this land of rising towers. She was an American. She grew from this soil and she would not be uprooted”
Irene
“sharp and painful gasps”
Irene reacts to Clare’s death
“far better to share him than to lose him completely”
Irene’s attitude to her marriage and cheating
“inexplicable onrush of affectionate feeling”
Irene’s reaction when Clare first comes to her house
“hot tears of rage and shame”
Irene reacts to “finding out” the affair
“I am wrapped up in my boys and the running of the house”
Irene
“nobody admires Clare more than I do”
Irene on Clare
“humiliation”
“resentment”
“rage”
Irene’s reaction to Clare’s letter in chapter 1
“forever wanting something that he couldn’t have”
Brian’s desire to move
“hellish place”
Brian describes NYC
“handsome”
“deep copper colour”
Description of Brian
