Quicksand By Nella Larsen

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.

Helga’s first indication of racial conflict revolves around her occupation as a teacher at Naxos. Not so much with her fellow teachers or the other staff, but with the core concepts and principles of the school itself. Helga admits that she has had trouble fitting into the “Naxos mold” (Larsen 10). She describes this failure to conform as “a lack somewhere,” stemming from “parts of her she couldn’t be proud of” (Larsen 10). These subtle hints show Helga’s conflict with racial discomfort. She strongly disagrees with the southern school’s values and ways of thinking. Helga feels that the school had become “a showplace in the black belt, [an] exemplification of the white man’s magnanimity, [and a] refutation of the black man’s inefficiency” (Larsen 8). In her opinion, this institution of le...

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...er obligation to her children, and is unable to flee from her problems as she did in the past. The final paragraph is proof of Helga’s inevitable doom. As it would seem throughout Helga’s life, she has struggled to be free of her sexual and racial confusion. Becoming pregnant for the fifth time explains with a bold certainty the title of Larsen’s novel. It seems that the more Helga struggles to be free, the more she sinks herself deeper into the quicksand.

Works Cited

DeFalco, Amelia. "Jungle creatures and dancing apes: modern primitivism and Nella Larsen's Quicksand." Mosaic [Winnipeg] 38.2 (2005): 19+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 15 Nov. 2013.

Hill, Laban Carrick. Harlem Stomp!: A Cultural History of the Harlem Renaissance. New York: Little, Brown, 2003. Print.

Larsen, Nella. Quicksand ; And, Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. Blacksburg, VA.: Wider