Authenticity, or a lack thereof, is a common theme among the 1920s literature we've examined thus far. Not only is authenticity questioned by the very notion of "passing" racially, but here we see the authenticity of language being questioned, suggesting that passing is not limited to racial passing, but is applicable in relationships within races as well.

This aspect of Clare's character's crediblity is seen earlier in the novel as well. Cutter says of Clare: "In a linguistic universe of fixed and stable realities...Clare is the element that creates the gap between signifier and signified, for she causes one to question if there is any such thing as one meaning, one signification, one "essential" identity" (95).

1. Cutter, Martha J.. "Sliding Signification: Passing as a Narrative and Textual Strategy in Nella Larsen's Fiction". Passing and the Fictions of Identity. Durham and London: Duke University, 1996.