Quicksand

by

Nella Larsen

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Quicksand makes teaching easy.
A beautiful, affluent, 30-year-old widow living in Harlem. She invites Helga to live in her house for Helga’s first year in Harlem, and they become close friends. As a black woman, Anne is passionate about black empowerment, but curiously models her own life on white culture, mimic white people’s speech, clothing, and artistic tastes. Anne is very vocal about her support of segregation, as she thinks it’s immoral for black and white people to mingle. She denigrates people in her community who date white men. This puts Helga in an awkward position as a mixed-race woman, and their friendship cools when Helga leaves Harlem for Denmark. Helga reconnects with Anne when she learns that Anne is going to marry Dr. Anderson, the man Helga herself loves. Anne’s marriage to Dr. Anderson causes a rift in their friendship. Anne is jealous of Dr. Anderson’s attraction to Helga, and Helga is jealous that Dr. Anderson married Anne. Anne’s character demonstrates how white mimicry and belief in segregation harms social progress.

Anne Grey Quotes in Quicksand

The Quicksand quotes below are all either spoken by Anne Grey or refer to Anne Grey . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Race, Segregation, and Society Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9 Quotes

She hated white people with a deep and burning hatred[.] […] But she aped their clothes, their manners, and their gracious ways of living. While proclaiming loudly the undiluted good of all things Negro, she yet disliked the songs, the dances, and the softly blurred speech of the race.

Related Characters: Helga Crane, Anne Grey
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Characteristically she writhed at the idea of telling Anne of her impending departure and shirked the problem of evolving a plausible and inoffensive excuse for its suddenness. “That,” she decided lazily, “will have to look out for itself; I can’t be bothered just now. It’s too hot.”

Related Characters: Helga Crane (speaker), Anne Grey , Peter Nilssen (Uncle Peter)
Page Number: 88
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“Why, she gives parties for white and colored people together. And she goes to white people’s parties. It’s worse than disgusting, it’s positively obscene.”

Related Characters: Anne Grey (speaker), Helga Crane, Audrey Denney
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Quicksand LitChart as a printable PDF.
Quicksand PDF

Anne Grey Quotes in Quicksand

The Quicksand quotes below are all either spoken by Anne Grey or refer to Anne Grey . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Race, Segregation, and Society Theme Icon
).
Chapter 9 Quotes

She hated white people with a deep and burning hatred[.] […] But she aped their clothes, their manners, and their gracious ways of living. While proclaiming loudly the undiluted good of all things Negro, she yet disliked the songs, the dances, and the softly blurred speech of the race.

Related Characters: Helga Crane, Anne Grey
Page Number: 80
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 10 Quotes

Characteristically she writhed at the idea of telling Anne of her impending departure and shirked the problem of evolving a plausible and inoffensive excuse for its suddenness. “That,” she decided lazily, “will have to look out for itself; I can’t be bothered just now. It’s too hot.”

Related Characters: Helga Crane (speaker), Anne Grey , Peter Nilssen (Uncle Peter)
Page Number: 88
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 11 Quotes

“Why, she gives parties for white and colored people together. And she goes to white people’s parties. It’s worse than disgusting, it’s positively obscene.”

Related Characters: Anne Grey (speaker), Helga Crane, Audrey Denney
Page Number: 91
Explanation and Analysis: