Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Quicksand, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race, Segregation, and Society
Mixed-Race Identity
Racial Shame and Emotional Repression
Race, Beauty, and Exoticism
Religion, Poverty, and Oppression
Summary
Analysis
Herr Dahl and Fru Dahl are disappointed by Helga’s refusal to marry Herr Olsen. They were expecting her to make a good match that would draw them into artistic circles of Danish society, and think her objections about race are “idiotic.” Herr Dahl points out that Helga really ought to exploit her “unique” position as the only “mulatto” in town. He’s convinced that Helga’s using the race issue to mask her true feelings for Herr Olsen. Helga says she can’t explain and bursts into tears. Herr Dahl is softened by Helga’s tears, but tells her to try and control herself, and not to worry, as they only want her happiness. Helga says she would do anything to make the Dahls happy. Herr Dahl shrugs, as Helga clearly won’t do the one thing that they want from her.
Helga’s family has been trying to capitalize on her racial status to increase their social standing. In other words, they have been treating her as a commodity, and not as a person. Herr Dahl points out Helga’s tendency to run from romantic encounters, but Helga’s emotional reaction shows that her pain is no mere mask: she knows that she will never be accepted as one of them, even though she is half-Danish herself.
Themes
Life goes on for Helga as before, but the atmosphere at home is more tense after her refusal of Herr Olsen. She also can’t ignore a nagging longing for America that has started to rise up in her. At the symphony one night, Helga decides she must go back, because she’s homesick. Not for America, but for Negroes. That’s the trouble.” She longs for the company of fellow people of color, and begins to forgive her father for abandoning her mother. Herr Dahl and Fru Dahl are sad, and urge Helga to return in the fall, after Anne’s wedding. As Helga’s departure approaches, she starts to feel regretful. She wishes she could have two lives, or be happy in one place.
Helga feels dissatisfied with Copenhagen when she realizes how much she has been suppressing her black cultural identity. She longs for Harlem, where she believes she can thrive again. Helga knows that she became dissatisfied with Harlem because she felt she had to suppress her whiteness. Now she wants to leave Copenhagen because she can’t give her blackness its full expression. This passage thus shows that Helga will never feel happy if she constantly has to suppresses some part of her racial identity to fit in.
Themes
