Quicksand is a short short story that I read for my U.S. Literature class. The story was around 100 pages, and it was very good. It is about a girl named Helga who is black, but her father was black and her mother white. Helga lives within a black community, Harlem, but she feels like she does not belong. She then moves to Copenhagen where she has an aunt. The location that she lives in is very white, but people do not ignore Helga because she is black. Helga becomes bored with living in Copenhagen, just like she got bored with living in Harlem. When she goes back to Harlem to visit, she realizes how much she misses living there, but she knows that she would never be happy living there for the rest of her life. She also knows that she would not be happy living back in Copenhagen. Helga finally finds a man who she decides to marry just so that she does not have to worry about her future anymore.
I loved reading about the main character Helga Crane. The story is about her trying to find where she feels comfortable and who she is comfortable with. Helga tries so hard to fit in with the people that she thinks she belongs to that she forgets to find out who she really is. Since Helga is so confused, the reader is able to relate to her.
I really enjoyed reading this story. I loved how Nella Larsen wrote it and the descriptions that she used. This story was so completely based about color and fitting in. Helga would always talk about colors of clothes that she is allowed to wear because of her skin color, and what she should not wear. Since color plays such a large role, Larsen uses a lot of colors within her writing. Whenever Helga describes something, she always writes what color it is. As I read through the story, I would circle everytime a color name was mentioned. I must have circled words on each page at least two or three times. I thought that by using the colors it made the story more colorful.
I would recommned this story to everyone. It is a quick read and I think everyone should read it. I would love to hear your comments of the story, and what you thought about Helga. I would have loved to write about the ending of the story, but I do not want to give away what happens. If you guys do read it, I would love to discuss what happens to Helga with you.
1 Comment:
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September 19, 2008 at 5:43 PM
I too read this for a literature class: The Literature of the Harlem Renaissance. I saw this more or a journey of self discovery and worth than “her trying to find where she feel s comfortable.” As for the author’s emphasis on colors, I think you over simplify. Helga is passing. To use your example of clothing, Helga often mentions the color of clothes “she is allowed to wear…and what she should not wear” to emphasis her fair skin. It also shows a level of hubris in Helga. She is proud of her fair skin. This hubris causes her family pain when she leaves them and, eventually, causes her downfall. Her hubris makes her believe she can continue in her life, despite her confession of her race to her bigot husband. Her passing causes inner turmoil. When she is true to herself and confesses her race to her husband, she finds that she must continue to be true to herself and refuse him when he wants her back in his bed, but not his life. This sets her on a new quest to make it through life on her own rather than depending on a rich white man. The book also illustrates the importance of family. Though rejected by the white world she so easily infiltrated, Helga is able to go home to her aunt, uncle and cousin despite her rejection of them earlier in the novella.
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