![]() ![]() Larsen also tried heading to Denmark, the same place her character Helga did, but struggled with trying to find her identity, so she ended up in Harlem like Helga, being unhappy. When Helga goes abroad and stays with her white family, she feels the need to leave once again, as she knows being surrounded by black people is where she belongs the most. Like Helga, Larsen did try to go abroad, wanting to escape the feeling of alienation in America and wanting to continue her writing, but it did not last due to issues back at home that wouldn’t leave her alone. Helga makes frequent moves, but never feels content wherever she ends up. Throughout the entire novel, Helga is constantly fighting battles with her mixed race when she’s surrounded by white people, she misses being around the black people. Larsen’s Quicksand introduces the protagonist struggling with her mixed race and trying to find identity in various places, which is clearly Larsen herself. Larsen was one of the most influential writers of that time as she writes about not only race, but sex and class. Quicksand was written in 1928, during the Harlem Renaissance time where African Americans could express their racial issues with writing. This book gives us clear insight to not only Larsen’s life through her character Helga, but also about racial issues at the time. Disillusioned with her husband and life, Helga gets into a depression as she realizes she is not happy in life. She falls into depression at the end, settling into marriage with kids and wonders what has happened to herself. Helga soon returns back to Harlem and finds herself falling into a depression as she finds god, and thinks God sent her there to marry reverend Green. She is accepted and praised there as she is thought of to be exotic to them, but soon leaves because she “can’t imagine living forever away from colored people” (94). She again moves away to Denmark this time with her white family. Helga finds herself having to leave once again and heads towards Harlem, where she is surrounded by black people who she thinks are hypocrites. Helga decides to leave the south behind to head up north to find contact with her uncle, who she finds out wants nothing to do with her since she is half black. She finds herself frustrated and unhappy at the school she teaches at which is surrounded by black people. Helga’s mother was white and her father was black. Her mother remarried a white man, leaving Helga to be brought up in a white family she never felt comfortable around. Helga continues to seek acceptance throughout the novel but never comes to find it. Quicksand is about a young lady Helga who is lonely and isolated, continuously dealing with issues being biracial. ![]() Nella Larsen’s issues with being biracial reflected clearly throughout her novel Quicksand. Dana Monreal on “Nella Larsen’s Continuous Battle with Race” ![]()
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