Analysis Of Quicksand By Nella Larsen

Improved Essays
Quicksand is a novel written by Nella Larsen who was a novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. She relates her issues of growing up with problems of race and sexual identity into this short story. The story is a satire of the movie Rosenwald. Rosenwald is about a white man who is placed inside many black schools located in the American South. Quicksand begins with a mixed race woman teaching in a black school in the south. These two stories both show what happens when race, wealth, and power all come together to test humanity and society of the people in the early nineteen century. Quicksand begins by a woman named Helga Crane sitting in a dark room alone. This sets the mood for the rest of the story. Helga is not a happy person and enjoys …show more content…
In Greece, Naxos is a place people worship God. This God is actually has the meaning God of pleasure. This relates back to Quicksand because Naxos is set up like a military school. Looking at both of these meanings, it’s clear that these definitions are opposite of each other. Naxos means pleasure but the school is not a place the students feel comfortable at. This could symbolize that there still may be racism in the South by naming it after the God of pleasure but not treating them like it. It could have given hope to the Negro community who finally had education for their kids, but the treatment is still not …show more content…
She felt that since she could not fix the system that she was a failure and wanted to leave. She compares herself to how the Negros was being treated. She agreed that the Negros lived in a complicated world but she had also came from the same thing. Helga says, “if you couldn’t prove your ancestor and connections, you were tolerated, but you didn’t belong” (8). She is talking about the white society and coming up as a nobody. Helga was someone who people never heard of, which made her feel insecure, uncomfortable, and always out of place. Especially since her fiancé was in a family everyone knew. Their marriage was unacceptable in his family’s eyes, but Helga wanted the social background. After living in that world for a while Helga did not realize how difficult it was and she thought this was the perfect time to get

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” The opening sentence in Pride and Prejudice has a fine, undeclared message. The obvious message being that a well-off man must be looking for a wife, but it also hides the truth that a single woman is in want of a husband. This novel relates to the play A Doll’s house. In these two readings a women’s idea of marriage is having a husband that can help guide, protect, and provide for them within their means. A man embraces the idea that his role in marriage is to protect and guide his wife.…

    • 591 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the book "Chains" by Laurie Halse Anderson, Isabel, a young slave girl tries to attain her freedom, but there is by no means any parity for her and her kind. As she is trying to do this a whole nation is declaring and fighting for their freedom as well. This book is set in New York in the Revolutionary War while Isabel lives in a censorious and Loyalist household. Isabel goes through many woeful experiences and hardships where it is almost unendurable at times. The author shows the theme of perseverance through Isabel's struggles, the branding, Ruth and Momma, and how Isabel perceives and copes with her struggles, the bees.…

    • 498 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We’ve all heard stories about the Nazis and how they were all horrible, immoral people, but we were never given any proof that this was true. Irmgard Bryant is the living proof of what the Nazi regime was really like. Born in 1930, Irmgard is the oldest of two daughters to a very devout Catholic family. Before she was born, Irmgard’s father, a World War I veteran who had been gassed, prayed for his life to be spared and promised the Holy Mary that his first born son would be a priest. When she was born and discovered to be a girl, her father couldn’t accept the fact that he would not be able to fulfill his promise, so he treated her as a boy, calling her “Strong Jack.”…

    • 1214 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Society is predominantly patriarchal. It is expected that men are the successful breadwinners and women are the housewives. Looking at a piece of Literature with a gender lens requires the reader to focus on how a work reflects or distorts these gender norms in society. In My Antonia the gender lens can be applied to reveal the overarching theme of self reliance. More specifically the gender lens can be applied to reveal the self-reliance of pioneer women such as Lena and Antonia.…

    • 1086 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    I interviewed a beautiful and courageous woman, of African descent. She is from the western part of Africa. She was born and raised in Monrovia, Liberia on May 20, 1969. In addition, she has one biological brother and three step siblings. Now she is currently living in Loganville, Georgia where she resides with her two children.…

    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Her job in Copenhagen is simply to enhance the social ranking of the family and to wear the beautiful, colorful clothing bought for her. The only impairment to happiness and emotional freedom present in Denmark is the weight of the chronic dissatisfaction that Helga places upon herself…

    • 714 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The famous John Steinbeck novel Of Mice And Men, depicts the story of two migrant workers during the Great Depression. George Milton and Lennie Small, the main characters of the play, are two friends that travel around California to find jobs. They do this to try to fulfill their dreams of owning their own farm. During their adventure, they encounter new people, and with these people, many of the novel’s most important scenes occur. These scenes evoke an emotion within the reader, and also connect with events and ideas seen in today’s society.…

    • 1054 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Scarlet Letter Conformity

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Thus, conforming to the Puritans beliefs that her sin is of utmost disgrace. Her attempted conformity leads Hester to an unfilled life, which lacks of love, passion,…

    • 1026 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    A Home for Maisie 212417193 1 A Home for Maisie 212417193 A Home for Maisie 212417193 2 THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL APPROACH Maisie's behavior can be interpreted in many different ways, for example using the multidimensional approach we find that there are some similarities between Hutchison's definition of Personal dimensions and Maisie. The psychological person consists of cognition, emotion, and self identity (Hutchison 2013). Maisie is very emotionally unstable, and has little sense of identity.…

    • 1894 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    CHARACTERS/ PLOT SUMMARY SYMBOLS, MOTIFS, IMAGES, THEMES, SIMILES, METAPHORS, CONNECTIONS, QUESTIONS The House on Mango Street They move to Mango St. Esperanza compares it to the house that she wants to live in (does not measure up). American Dream (theme) disappointment (theme) TT/ TBE: connection (looking to media for standard TS connection: moving from apt to house Nuns:…

    • 2235 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Martin Luther King Rhetorical Analysis

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    He uses these words and follows them with things that he knows that people are hoping for. He uses the word dream, because it is such a personal and deep commodity. The phrases he adds to the end of this representation are also very personal. This is so effectual because the target audience of this speech can see these visualizations become reality. This audience probably includes many parents, like King, making his reference to his children universal.…

    • 1412 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The short story “Disappearing”, written by Monica Wood, is about an overweight woman who falls into an addiction. Nowadays, society has been changing a lot and specially in the way people should look in the exterior. As we can see in T.V., movies or magazines models are now with perfect bodies. But people should as themselves whenever they see this, “what is really a perfect body?”. The perfect is how you feel and whatever makes you feel comfortable.…

    • 837 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The Relationship of Gender and Vocation in the 19th century novel Women and men in 19th century society occupied separate spheres since it was believed that the sexes have different physical and mental characteristics. Men belonged in the outside world or the public sphere, “where they could use their capacity for logical thought to best effect” (Rowbotham). Women, on the other hand, according to Rowbotham, were expected to belong to “the more passive, private sphere of the household and home where their inborn emotional talents would serve them best”. Physicians and anthropologists justified this division further by saying that if women were to mentally exert themselves like men, “women would divert the supply of blood and phosphates from…

    • 1220 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Character Analysis Of Nora In A Doll's House

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited

    under those circumstances, her reactions to the restrictions posed upon her were normal. They also made life easier for her; she could simply have fun and enjoy life. Her father's attitude was undoubtedly the main reason that she picked a man like Torvald to marry. Unconsciously, she was still seeking a father figure, a continuation of her childhood.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    • 1 Works Cited
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Strength is often misinterpreted as showing no emotion. In Margaret Laurence’s novel The Stone Angel, The protagonist, Hagar Currie/Shipley is strongly influenced by her father, Jason Currie. Jason taught Hagar to be tough and tenacious. Hagar shields her weakness with her inability to help her peers. Hagar unsuccessfully plays the roles of a maiden, wife, and mother in her life.…

    • 1394 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays

Related Topics