Irene & Clare

Victor Sampson

African American Literature

N. Bombaci

24 October 2017

Irene & Clare

Clare lives a double consciousness life but she does it to get what she wants which is her luxury needs. Irene does the same thing Clare does and they both do it to receive their needs. Clare and Irene both constantly stay active on juggling different stances from their race so they can try and live best of both worlds. But Irene and Clare don’t know that the world doesn’t work like the way they think it does because you can only live one life and that comes with one consciousness. Now that there both living there lives with a double conscious their failures will double up two times because they both are living two separate lives.

Irene and Clare always put themselves in awkward positions and what I mean by that is they have to be in positions where they have to pretend and laugh at racist comments even when John says something racist it’s like they want to fight back but they know if they do then it would look suspicious John would want to know why Clare and Irene are going against his racist joke. So therefor they laugh so their Identify won’t be blown if they interrupt. Irene and Clare can lose their cool in positions like that but they chose not to because if they do then they won’t be able to get their luxury needs. You see Irene and Clare’s double consciousness brought them a long way in times of their needs and wants its quite clear they both love the rich life so their willing to do anything to stay in it.

Irene and Clare’s double consciousness kicks in whenever they have ideas of wanting something or when they think about exploring their color side. They do all this to pass so they are forced to abandon their emotions and put them to the side. Clear, Irene get nervous around “white situations. But they still have to hide their true nature and deal with it no matter what racist slurs the “white” say.

Inconclusion Clare made the decision to pass for the attractiveness of the lifestyle while Irene remains loyal to her black race but upholds white standards. The difference in their racial performances proves that these women fail to achieve an integrated Identity.

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