the last or Larsen -- the first too

I really don't get the homosexual connotations that everyone seems to think they see. There is definitely a jealousy that Irene feels when other people are interested in Clare, but it seems more like a jealousy in the sense that Clare possesses something that Irene has never had. I don't know if Irene knows right away that that is the case, but in the last section of the book we see Irene have an emotion that she has never had before -- she suddenly finds that she has had a moment in which she resents being black. I think this is the crux of the novel. While it may not be the most important event, the writers of the Harlem renaissance were about bringing to light racial tensions whether it is towards one's race or within one's race and this is just one of those tensions, when black people see the benefits of whiteness and want it. You see the opposite of this today in people wanting to be black because of the rich culture, natural rhythm that many assume all black people have, and whatever other positive stereotypes there may be. Obviously one of Larsen's things is to bring that homosexual element into her writing, but I'm not so sure that's supposed to be a driving force in this novel.