Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man By Nella Larsen

Regardless of one’s particular journey, we all deal with varying magnitudes of difficulties. This aspect is not only a part of everyday life, but it is also a fundamental one. Every person deals with their own sorrows and from these we are able to learn from them. By overcoming adversities, people create better lives for themselves and can have a new beginning. All of this is portrayed in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand and James Weldon’s The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Beginning off with the passage from Quicksand, Larsen is able to develop this theme by using the characters. An example of this is seen when Helga struggles with “inherent aloneness” that she is experiencing as she’s on the boat to leave America, where she didn’t feel as though she fit in, and return back to Denmark: “Leaning against the railing, Helga stared into the approaching night,

glad to be at last alone, free of that great superfluity of human beings, yellow, brown, and black, which, as the torrid summer burnt to its close, had so oppressed her. No, she hadn’t belonged there” (paragraph 2).

Here, readers learn about just how alone and separated Helga feels from everybody. It was only when she was alone, that she felt free from everybody and the oppression from the superfluity of the race and color. Through reading the story, we learn that this feeling comes from the fact that Helga is biracial. She has a white mother and a black father. However, she is only surrounded by her mother’s side of the family which makes her feel isolated. As Helga is on this trip, she struggles with her fear of meeting her aunt’s husband who is white since she doesn’t know if he’ll be accepting. This come nervousness comes from a prior, unpleasant experience with her Uncle Peter’s new wife, Mrs. Nilssen. However, when the boat trip comes to an end, she deals with her trouble and meets her aunt and new uncle. After this, Helga realizes that “she had all her fears and questionings for nothing” (paragraph 10) because he turned out to be a kind, gracious man. By overcoming and dealing with her racial difficulties, she was able to meet people who made finally made her feel

accepted. Continuing on, we also have a passage from The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man where Johnson utilized the events to convey this theme. In the story, a man travels on a ship to Paris and on his journey he struggles with his “morbid state of mind”. This is due to the fact that he is a fugitive with connections to events involving a widow’s death which he feels responsible for. However, it is when he finally reaches Paris that he is able to fully overcome his worries: “Before we arrived in Paris there was awakened in my heart a love for France which continued to grow stronger…” (paragraph 2). Then, in paragraph three, he continues with his descriptions of Paris in order to describe this “charmed spot” of his. From this, we readers are able to get a full understanding of his fondness and adoration for France. Through arriving at France, he was able to defeat his own inner turmoil. Ultimately, both passages from Quicksand and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man presented that by conquering the misfortunes that are thrown in your path, you further yourself in the reach towards triumph.