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Comparative analysis of two Harlem Renaissance texts
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The final text I have chosen is Quicksand by the American female author Nella Larsen. Just like Little Women, Quicksand could be seen to be a biographical account of Larsen’s life in the Harlem renaissance. The novel follows the life of a female protagonist called Helga Crane, who is a young mixed race woman, struggling to find a correct place within society. “The geography of the soul, the rocky, rich terrain of dreams, is in reality the setting for Quicksand and Passing. Helga Crane and Clare Kendry are women of enormous energy, talent, and sensitivity who find no release for or realization of those gifts in either black or white society. The real tragedy for both women is that there is literally no place for them to be somebody except in …show more content…
the arms of a man. Marriage is their only legitimate option.” (Larson, 2010:vii) When considering the chosen question, Nella Larsen is a good example of an author flirting with rebellion but her narrative ending in conformity.
Larsen was not one to abide by the rules, stemming right from her childhood when she was expelled from one school for not abiding by the dress code that was set out in the schools rules. Larsen also addressed taboo issues within her novels such as sex and race. Larsen uses the character of Helga to convey her own feelings on her early life and the society that surrounded her. “What, then, is the nature of the quicksand into which Helga Crane sinks in Nella Larsen’s novel? Critics have offered various answers. Hiroko Sato writes ‘The title, Quicksand, signifies the heroine Helga Crane’s sexual desire, which was hidden beneath her beautiful and intelligent surface and came up at an unexpected moment and trapped her.” (Johnson, 1998: …show more content…
40) The issue of race is highlighted throughout the novel by Larsen, being a light skinned woman with parents from Denmark and the Caribbean, it’s almost as if Larsen used her writing to project her identity issues within her own life. The similarities between Helga Crane and Nella Larsen are evident through main plot twists in the novel, for instance when Helga leaves to travel to Denmark to find a long lost uncle. In comparison to the other novels I have discussed on this module the taboo issue of race is explored by Larsen which also shows a streak of rebellion as she feels it’s an important issue to raise. Larsen makes it a prominent fact that Helga will end the novel being married and starting a family, accepting the virtues of conformity.
Helga, after meeting her husband, Reverend Green, Helga thinks she has found some solace within the whole loving family set up. The happy set up is short lived, as Helga feels bewildered with the amount of work she faces, being a good wife, looking after the household and looking after so many children. Although Helga shows a rebellious side, having sexual desires for Dr Anderson, again Larsen makes sure this is short lived, as Dr Anderson claims he was a ‘fool’ to kiss her. Using this moment in the novel to show how confined Helga is, having sexual desires and not being married is not acceptable for that time
era. Although Helga tries to gain control when choosing her suitor “Within weeks of rejecting Olsen’s proposal, Helga wants an affair with Anderson and is hurt that he does no proposition her. Helga does reject Olsen because she is not ‘for sale’ to him or ‘to any white man’, and thus she had decided she ‘couldn’t marry a white man.’’ (Fabre & Feith, 2001:184) Helga’s narrative eventually ends in conformity with no rebellion, when finds religion as a way of living and meets the Reverend. In conclusion, I do agree with the question ‘Do you agree that, although the women writers studied on this module flirted with rebellion, their narratives finally endured the virtues of conformity’. Within the four texts I have analysed, I believe each women’s narrative ends in conformity, regardless if they show rebellion in there early life e.g. the character of Jo March. Although Jo March is a candidate for disagreeing with the statement, evidently she still ends the novel getting married and settling down. Although all of the Women authors feel the need for change within the male dominated society, there narratives conclusions do not reflect this. Just as in The House of Mirth there is hidden message, that for a woman to be successful there most safest option is to marry young and into a certainable amount of wealth which their husbands would have.
The black women’s interaction with her oppressive environment during Revolutionary period or the antebellum America was the only way of her survival. Playing her role, and being part of her community that is not always pleasant takes a lot of courage, and optimism for better tomorrow. The autonomy of a slave women still existed even if most of her natural rights were taken. As opposed to her counterparts
...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.
The award-winning book of poems, Brown Girl Dreaming, by Jacqueline Woodson, is an eye-opening story. Told in first person with memories from the author’s own life, it depicts the differences between South Carolina and New York City in the 1960s as understood by a child. The book begins in Ohio, but soon progresses to South Carolina where the author spends a considerable amount of her childhood. She and her older siblings, Hope and Odella (Dell), spend much of their pupilage with their grandparents and absorb the southern way of life before their mother (and new baby brother) whisk them away to New York, where there were more opportunities for people of color in the ‘60s. The conflict here is really more of an internal one, where Jacqueline struggles with the fact that it’s dangerous to be a part of the change, but she can’t subdue the fact that she wants to. She also wrestles with the issue of where she belongs, “The city is settling around me….(but) my eyes fill up with the missing of everything and everyone I’ve ever known” (Woodson 184). The conflict is never explicitly resolved, but the author makes it clear towards the end
Gates, Henry Louis, and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. Print.
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.
Historically, the job of women in society is to care for the husband, the home, and the children. As a homemaker, it has been up to the woman to support the husband and care for the house; as a mother, the role was to care for the children and pass along cultural traditions and values to the children. These roles are no different in the African-American community, except for the fact that they are magnified to even larger proportions. The image of the mother in African-American culture is one of guidance, love, and wisdom; quite often the mother is the shaping and driving force of African-American children. This is reflected in the literature of the African-American as a special bond of love and loyalty to the mother figure. Just as the role of motherhood in African-American culture is magnified and elevated, so is the role of the wife. The literature reflects this by showing the African-American man struggling to make a living for himself and his family with his wife either being emotionally or physically submissive. Understanding the role of women in the African-American community starts by examining the roles of women in African-American literature. Because literature is a reflection of the community from which it comes, the portrayal of women in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937) and James Baldwin's Go Tell it on the Mountain (1952) is consistent with the roles mentioned above.
Jacobs, Harriet, and Yellin, Jean. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
Jacobs, Harriet. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." The Classic Slave Narratives. Ed. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. New York: Mentor, 1987.
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.
The definition of home is: the place where one lives permanently. Home is a place where one feels accepted, loved, and comfortable enough to be themselves completely. In Nella Larsen’s “Quicksand”, main character Helga is a bi-racial woman in the 1920’s who struggles internally with where she feels she belongs and where she can call home. Throughout the entire novel Helga moves to many different places to try and feel at home. In the society that Helga is cursed to have to live in, biracial people are not common and rarely accepted in many communities. Personally I don’t feel like Helga would have ever found a place to call her real home, using the definition where home is a permanent place to comfortably live, where she would chose to stay
Fisher, Jerilyn, and Ellen S. Silber. Women in Literature: Reading Through the Lens of Gender. Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press, 2003. Print.
James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.
In Harriet Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, the author subjects the reader to a dystopian slave narrative based on a true story of a woman’s struggle for self-identity, self-preservation and freedom. This non-fictional personal account chronicles the journey of Harriet Jacobs (1813-1897) life of servitude and degradation in the state of North Carolina to the shackle-free promise land of liberty in the North. The reoccurring theme throughout that I strive to exploit is how the women’s sphere, known as the Cult of True Womanhood (Domesticity), is a corrupt concept that is full of white bias and privilege that has been compromised by the harsh oppression of slavery’s racial barrier. Women and the female race are falling for man’s
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
She was forced to cross beneath her social class and marry this commoner in the hopes that he would make a name for himself as a professor. As for love everlasting, Hedda disgustedly comments to Judge Brack, "Ugh -- don't use that syrupy word!" Rather than having become a happy newlywed who has found true love, "Hedda is trapped in a marriage of convenience" (Shipley 445). Hedda was raised a lady of the upper class, and as such she regards her beauty with high esteem. This is, in part, the reason she vehemently denies the pregnancy for so long.