Race, Segregation, and Society
Quicksand traces the life of Helga Crane, a young biracial woman searching for belonging in the early 20th-century U.S. Helga lives in a time when slavery has been abolished, and many people are now concerned with the “race problem” of how to overcome the different forms of racial oppression that black people now face. Despite these efforts, Helga persistently encounters oppressive beliefs held by other characters wherever she goes. Through Helga’s experiences, author Nella…
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Mixed-Race Identity
Quicksand tracks the life of Helga Crane, a young biracial woman searching for belonging in early 20th-century American and European societies. Her character embodies the “tragic mulatta” trope common in 19th-century abolitionist literature: a half-white, half-black woman who is raised in an affluent setting, struggles to find her place in society, and meets a tragic end. Typically, the “tragic mulatta” is sold into slavery. Helga Crane’s life represents a failed attempt to escape the…
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Racial Shame and Emotional Repression
Helga Crane, the central character in Quicksand, is a mixed-race woman who was abandoned at a young age by her black American father. She is raised in the U.S. by her white Danish mother and white step-family, always feeling like an awkward racial outsider. After her mother dies when Helga is 15, she is sent away to a boarding school for black women. In adulthood, Helga struggles to find her emotional footing…
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Race, Beauty, and Exoticism
Quicksand depicts the adult life of Helga Crane, a mixed-race woman who travels to various locations in the U.S. and Europe, reflecting on the way people treat her in different communities. After living among black Americans in Harlem, Helga travels to Denmark to reconnect with her white family, and the white side of her mixed-race identity. Helga is surprised to find that the Danes embrace her as a thing of beauty, and relishes in…
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Religion, Poverty, and Oppression
Towards the end of Quicksand, Helga Crane, the story’s protagonist, runs out of her Harlem apartment in a fit of despair because Dr. Anderson, the man she loves, is not going to leave his wife for her. Battered by a rainstorm, Helga seeks refuge in a nearby church. As she leans into the railing to steady herself, Helga is overpowered by the congregation, who crowd around her and say she has been “saved.”…
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