The novel The Garies and their friends is a realistic examination of the complex psychology of black people who attempt to assimilate through miscegenation and to crossing the color barrier by “passing for white.” Frank J. Webb explains why black people cannot pass for white through the characters of Mr. Winston and Clarence Jr. At the beginning of the novel, Mr. Winston is introduced as a slave who was eventually sold because his master is deceased. I met Mr. Garie, someone he worked with on a plantation. In a conversation with Mr. Garie, Mr. Winston said he would not return to New Orleans and said that "since he was in the North, he hadn't met any of them." but white people, Mr. Garie replied: I must tell you... if you are to settle here, you must be either one thing or another, white or colored, or you must live exclusively among colored people, or go to the whites. and stay with them. But to do the latter you must bear in mind that you must never know that you have a drop of African blood in your veins, otherwise you would be avoided as if you were a plague; skin tone or how white you are. Mr. Garie was essentially saying that if Mr. Winston ever spoke about his status as an African American, he would not succeed in society. This is the beginning of Frank J. Webb proving that black people cannot pass for white. Mr. Winston said he "has not yet decided whether to try it, and...he hardly thinks it likely that he will do so." Mr. Winston knew that if he tried to pass himself off as white in the North, it wouldn't work because, except for him, he would probably try to kill him (Webb 41). Clarence Jr. was another character who had mixed race parents and when they were killed he was forced to pass as white. Mr. Balch in the middle of paper......snoops around her house just to see her face. When he found his sister Em, he asked her to send a letter to Little Birdie telling her to come and visit him as he had been very ill. When Little Birdie received the letter, she immediately went to visit him but unfortunately, when she reached his house, he died. Frank J. Webb allows us to see that black people cannot pass for white. Black people should avoid their black friends like Clarence Jr. did. It seems that Clarence Jr. and Mr. Winston didn't feel bad at first for trying to pass as white. Eventually, they knew that trying to pass as white in the North would be a bad idea, especially for Clarence Jr. He practically killed himself trying to keep a secret from his fiancée and her family. Trying to pass as white wouldn't work for black people and they should just be who they are and not someone they want to be..