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
On the train to New York, Helga makes fast work of correcting and summarizing Mrs. Hayes-Rore’s speeches. Helga notices that the speeches are patched together from things prominent race scholars have said, including like Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Nonetheless, Helga finds Mrs. Hayes-Rore fascinating, and Mrs. Hayes-Rore feels the same way about Helga. As the train approaches Newark, Mrs. Hayes-Rore asks Helga how she was able to drop everything for a gig like this so easily. Helga is immediately angered. She feels as if she’s perpetually explaining herself to people. But she manages to reply politely that she has nobody in the world, so it’s easy.
Through Helga’s voice, Larsen names several real Harlem Renaissance thinkers, foreshadowing Harlem’s cultural environment that Helga is about to join. Helga’s anger surfaces once again when Mrs. Hayes-Rore makes polite conversation. Even though Mrs. Hayes-Rore asks a simple question, Helga is unable to separate it from her lifelong frustration at constantly having to explain herself on account of her race. Helga’s mixed-race identity thus bleeds into every aspect of her day-to-day life, and takes over her emotions.
Themes
Mrs. Hayes-Rore laughs and says it’s impossible to have nobody, but is embarrassed when she notices Helga is upset by the remark. After a little probing, Helga tells her life story, unable to hide her personal torment, while Mrs. Hayes-Rore looks out of the window. Feeling uncomfortable, Mrs. Hayes-Rore changes the subject and asks Helga what her plan is when she gets to New York. Helga admits that she has none. Mrs. Hayes-Rore warns Helga that New York can be lonely, and suggests Helga come and stay uptown with her for a few days.
Helga constantly carries her racial shame with her, and is unable to communicate her story without exposing her personal torment about her race. Helga’s anguish is juxtaposed with Mrs. Hayes-Rore’s calm and comfortable demeanor. Mrs. Hayes-Rore—who may also be mixed-race herself—seems much more level-headed, and thinks about pragmatic solutions to help Helga, who tends to negatively dwell on her emotions.
Themes
As the train pulls into New York, Helga notices that it looks shiny, unfriendly, and a little scornful in the sharp air. Intimidated, Helga accepts Mrs. Hayes-Rore’s offer. Mrs. Hayes-Rore explains that they will stay with her niece Anne, who lives in a big house with lots of room. As they get into a cab and head uptown, Mrs. Hayes-Rore warns Helga not to mention that her “people are white,” since “colored people won’t understand.”
Mrs. Hayes-Rore reveals that she is, in fact, mixed-race, and has some white relatives. Her reluctance to publicize this information shows that in a segregated society, there is discrimination on both sides: blackness is questioned in white environments, and whiteness is questioned in black environments. Mixed-race people thus always have to hide a part of their identity to fit in.
Themes
As Mrs. Hayes-Rore and Helga walk into Anne’s house, Mrs. Hayes-Rore greets Anne, who is a “tall slim creature beautifully dressed in a cool green tailored frock” with a pleasant voice. Mrs. Hayes-Rore mentions that Helga’s mother died (omitting that it was a long time ago) and suggests Helga could do with a spell in New York. Anne agrees and whisks Helga into the house.
Larsen emphasizes Anne’s beauty and sophistication when introducing her into the story for the first time. Her description of Anne as a “slim creature” with a “tailored frock” and “pleasant voice” ties into her overall aim of populating the story with positive descriptions of blackness as beautiful without sexualizing or exoticizing it.
Themes
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