Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay about quicksand by nella larson
Critical analysis essay example
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Nella Larsen’s “Quicksand” depicts a young woman who lives her life around her dyer need to find her place in society. In the setting of Quicksand, discrimination is a key factor in the text because Helga Crane, who is a biracial woman, is expected to settle in a race in which she does not necessarily call her own. With this said, Crane maintains her status as an outsider in both the white and black community, and is never content with her surroundings. She also disregards her peer’s philosophies on life as annoying or absurd. She is constantly looking for a “better” life that will bring her self-fulfillment, but to her misfortune she never finds it. In the text Quicksand, Helga Crane shows great dissatisfaction with her life because of the racial barriers she has set for herself psychologically. She has formed these barriers in her life to keep distance from facing racial discrimination and conformity. Crane fights to keep differentiation between herself and the rest of society, and makes a life choice to not repeat the same mistakes as her given mother. While trying to find her own happiness, Helga Crane looks towards her materialistic views which prove to dissatisfy her in every situation.
Helga Crane put up racial barriers physiologically to protect herself from discrimination and conformity. Crane grew up without a place in the status quo which forced her to blend with wherever she was accepted. Her influences during childhood had a huge impact on her and the way she felt she should be treated, but as she grows older she begins to experience the wrath of racism. Crane experiences her life through the eyes of other people, particularly white people. She allows this factor to control her life and determine what she is capable...
... middle of paper ...
...s because Helga has not experienced inner happiness. Helga uses her ethnicity as a crutch of why her life has not panned out as it should and she indulges in her own self-pity that only fires her negative defiance. This personal factor has an effect on her outlook and attitude on life and causes her to make selfish and irrational decisions further more leaving her in sorrow and self-pity. When Helga taught at Naxo, she built inside of her a rage of anger and instead of using her disapproval as momentum in changing the world; she used it to fire her thoughts of unfairness and resentment, which she brings her to spiritual and physical defeat in the end.
Works Cited
Morrow, Melinda. "The Audrey Option: Double-bind and Choice in Quicksand." Abstract. Clemson University, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. .
Helga Crane can never fit completely into either of the societies she has chosen to associate herself with. As a bi-racial woman in the early 19th century she fits in neither with black people nor white. But there is a place where she can feel more at home and that place is Copenhagen. Her ideals, likes and dislikes align better with the society in Copenhagen than Harlem.
Symbolism, similes and themes helped guide the reader to gather ideas and information about characters in this book about how you can amount to anything if you try hard enough. Walls shows you can come from any background and still make a name and a life for yourself. Jeannette
The character of Helga Crane from the novel Quicksand by Nella Larsen is a very complex character, struggling with racial identity, social class and sexism. Helga Crane is a twenty-three year old schoolteacher that comes from a mixed racial background. Her birth mother was a Danish woman, while her birth father was of West African descent. In the novel, she is depicted as a very exotic, beautiful and intelligent looking woman. Her racial dilemma however has left her lonely, alienated and psychologically uncertain to her belonging in the world. While growing up, due to her significant dark-skin and European features she was ostracized by both the Caucasian and African American community. In order to find herself a place in the world, and feel at home she traveled from the South, to cities such as Chicago, Harlem and even the European city of Copenhagen in Denmark. When it came to her travels, everywhere she would go she stated a strong opinion on her belonging. With that being said, I would like to focus this paper on three passages regarding her life at Naxos, in Harlem, and in Copenhagen.
Hulga has been to college for many years, earning a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Coming from such a rural background, she feels that her education raises her status in the intellectual world, and therefore life in general, above anyone not as educated as she is. "You poor baby…it’s just as well you don’t understand"(404). The young woman fails to see that there is much more to life than what you can learn in a book. Due to a heart condition, however, Hulga is forced to remain home on the farm, instead of being in an academic setting where her education would be recognized and encouraged. This attitude that she is above most other people isolates Hulga from everyone around her. Even her mother c...
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
Queer. Exile. Class (Clare 31).” When Clare writes about losing home, he is writing about the parts of his identity that pulled him away from the place that he raised, as well as the parts of his identity that prevent him from finding home in other places (Clare 41). These words, queer, exile, and class, are both driving forces behind why Clare can’t find a place where he feels fully comfortable settling, but also these words give him a place where he feels at home. Clare explains his trouble finding home best when he describes, “I was a rural, mixed-class, queer child in a straight, rural, working-class town. Afterwards, I was an urban-transplanted, mixed-class, dyke activist in an urban, mostly middle-class, queer community. Occasionally I simply feel as if I’ve traded one displacement for another and lost home to boot (Clare 46).” This telling of Clare’s displacement highlights how his queer identity drove him from his childhood home, but his rural, mixed-class background prevents him from feeling content in the city (Clare 46). His queer identity, and his desire to escape his class situation, is part of what forced Clare into the exile that he experiences. However, these identities don’t only serve as a point of alienation for Clare but also as a place where he can belong. When talking
Despite the current scrutiny that her race faces she asserts to the reader that her race and color define her as a person and does not determine her identity. Despite the mindset that most of her peers keep about the inequality of race, she maintains an open mind and declares to the reader that she finds everyone equal. Thus proving herself as a person ahead of her own time.
Nella Larsen's Passing tells the story of the reconnection of two childhood friends whose lives take divergent paths. Through these characters Larsen weaves together a cautionary tale about the consequences of living a double life, and the harm associated with internalized racism. Through Clair and Irene, Larsen conveys to readers the consequences of desiring to live life as a bicultural individual during the early 20th century. Claire represents the archetypical character known as the tragic mulatto, as she brings tragedy to all those she encounters. Irene represents someone grappling with internalized racism; catalyzed by Claire's reentrance into her life. Larsen juxtaposes the two characters to demonstrate the inescapability of social regulations. Clare attempts to escape the social barriers placed upon African-Americans, and she does, but not without consequence. Through diction, tone, and imagery Larsen makes it luminous to readers that "passing" may seem glamorous, however, the sacrifice one makes to do so is not without consequences for themselves and those they care about.
Like Esther, Joan Gilling grew up in the same small town; she also won the writing competition and was sent to New York to work for the same magazine. Joan was also very conscious about how the world identified her as an individual. She didn’t want to conform to what society sa...
In this novel the author explore the struggles of African-American women to forge an identity for herself that is free of the bonds placed on her by society. The protagonist of Quicksand, create identities for herself that transcend racial boundaries. The daughter of Danish woman and black jazz musician she has never know, Helga has never had black family member. However she struggles with the disconnect between her appearance and external reality. She never feels at home in the company of either black people or white people. As result, is constantly fleeing from place to place in look for a society where she can fit. In black society she feels oustracised because of her colourful, her distaste for the race problem
There is a debate whether Hester Prynne is or is not a good mother, and if she should or should not keep Pearl. Hester Prynne is a good mother and should be allowed to keep Pearl. Hester has regret for her sin, Pearl is her happiness and shame, and she still has done a decent job at raising her. Hester repeatedly has mentioned her regret for her sin. She mentions it every time the letter brings the letter into focus. One example is shown in chapter 5, in the quote,”From first to last,in short, Hester Prynne had always this dreadful agony in feeling a human eye upon the token; the spot never grew callous; it seemed, on the contrary, to grow more sensitive with daily torture.” The fact that she regrets her sin proves that she wants to be the best she
Helga feels most out of place when she has to confront the eroticism of the clubs in Harlem and her disassociation from sexuality. For example, Helga realizes how the music moves her in the club, “… the music died, she dragged herself back to the present with a conscious effort; and shameful certainty that not only had she been in the jungle, but she had enjoyed it…” (Larsen, 59). Helga also feels social disconnection from Anne Grey who’s hypocritical of the culture she participates in. Anne Grey makes her hypocrisy clear when she says, “That’s what’s the matter with the Negro race. They won’t stick together. She certainly ought to be ostracized”, while at the same time participating in white society and even enjoying the music and other cultural products (Larsen, 61). Due to Helga’s alternative views to that of the Harlem and New York City society she leaves for Denmark where instead of feeling appreciated she’s fetishized and put on display like a freak show. Helga realizes she’s being made into an eroticized version of herself when Herr Olsen says, “…You have the warm impulsive nature of Africa, but, my lovely, you have, I fear, the soul of a prostitute. You sell yourself to the highest bidder, I should of course be happy that it is I…” (Larsen, 87). For this and other reasons, Helga leaves Denmark and moves back to New York City but this is not her final
...ndurance of poverty, as we witness how Walls has turned her life around and told her inspiring story with the use of pathos, imagery, and narrative coherence to inspire others around her (that if she can do it, so can others). Jeannette made a huge impact to her life once she took matters into her own hands and left her parents to find out what life has in store for her and to prove to herself that she is a better individual and that anything is possible. Despite the harsh words and wrongful actions of Walls’ appalling parents who engage her through arduous experiences, she remained optimistic and made it through the most roughest and traumatic obstacles of her life at the age of three. Walls had always kept her head held high and survived the hardships God put upon her to get to where she is today; an author with a best selling novel to tell her bittersweet story.
It has been suggested that Hedda Gabler is a drama about the individual psyche -- a mere character study. It has even been written that Hedda Gabler "presents no social theme" (Shipley 333). On the contrary, I have found social issues and themes abundant in this work.
The novel follows the protagonist, Celie, as she experiences such hardships as racism and abuse, all the while attempting to discover her own sense of self-worth. Celie expresses herself through a series of private letters that are initially addressed to God, then later to her sister Nettie. As Celie develops from an adolescent into an adult, her letters possess m... ... middle of paper ... ... bservations of her situation and form an analysis of her own feelings.