Throughout Passing, Larsen’s characters stand in doorways or linger around thresholds. These doorways and thresholds serve to physically represent the story’s attention to liminality (the idea of being in between two distinct spaces). The theme of passing, itself a form of liminality, echoes the fact that characters often find themselves at the border between rooms, just as they are often on the brink of different identities. Likewise, the window through which Clare ultimately falls/is pushed represents the potential violence of the act of passing or crossing racial boundaries, as Clare falls to her death.
Doorways, Windows, Thresholds Quotes in Passing
This, she reflected, was of a piece with all that she knew of Clare Kendry. Stepping always on the edge of danger. Always aware, but not drawing back or turning aside. Certainly not because of any alarms or feeling of outrage on the part of others.
Doorways, Windows, Thresholds Symbol Timeline in Passing
