Determinism in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand
During the Harlem Renaissance, many literary works concentrated on celebrating African American heritage. However, many other writers also began concentrating on the darker theme of naturalism. Nella Larsen’s Quicksand illustrates many elements of this movement. These include a biological determinism, where man is conceived of as controlled by his primitive animal instincts and a sociological determinism, whereby the weak are destroyed and the strong survive in a world of struggle and chance. Helga Crane, Larsen’s protagonist in Quicksand, illustrates the elements of both biological and sociological determinism in her inability to suppress her natural animal instinct to flee uncomfortable situations, and to comfortably conform in either of her opposing communities.
Helga cannot suppress her desire to flee from uncomfortable situations in any city that she lives in. In Naxos, she convinces herself that she is leaving a place that has “grown into a machine” (4). Although the conforming nature of the institution contributes to Helga’s desire to leave, she is also stirred with “an overpowering desire for action of some sort” (4). Instead of staying in Naxos and fighting a battle against the institute’s conservative attitudes, Helga chooses to flee an unpleasant reality. This exemplifies the “fight or flight” animal instinct that is said to control behavior in situations that become overwhelming. Instead of fighting, Helga time and time again chooses to leave what becomes unbearable to her. Once the decision is made to leave Naxos, Helga feels “like a person who had been for months fighting the devil and then unexpectedly had turned around and agreed to do his bidding” (5). Helga knows deep down that leaving Naxos is wrong, but the instinct to flee is so strong that she is powerless to deny it.
In New York, Helga is also consumed by the animal instinct of flight. When Dr. Anderson calls on her after a chance meeting at a nightclub, Helga “had no intention of running away, but something, some imp of contumacy, drove her from his presence, though she longed to stay” (51). Once again, Helga succumbs to her overwhelming desire to leave an uncomfortable situation. Later she realizes with a “sense of helplessness and inevitability…that the weapon she had chosen had been a boomerang, for she herself had felt...
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...at the advice she offers these women is looked upon with contempt. She begins to adapt to her life after Sary Jones advises her to “make de bes’ of et” but her efforts falter during her next pregnancy (125). Instead of making the best of her life, Helga hands over this responsibility to God which eventually leads to the same feeling of “dissatisfaction [and] asphyxiation that she felt in Naxos, New York and Copenhagen” (134). After all of her experiences, her inability to conform leads her right back to the same place she started from. It is obvious that Helga Crane will never truly be able to “fit in” in any society.
It is apparent that Nella Larsen’s Quicksand is concerned with the naturalistic element of determinism. Helga Crane illustrates both a biological and sociological determinism in her animal instinct for “flight” and her inability to conform in any of her environments. Larsen’s ability to integrate these themes into the character of Helga proves that the Quicksand is not only representative of the Harlem Renaissance, but also of the naturalistic movement.
Work Cited
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand and Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1986.
She can’t be completely at home in either of these places but in all actuality, during this time period, there isn’t truly a place where Helga can feel completely at home. What she wants is to be fully accepted and in a world where racial mixing is practically a sin, and one of the races that she is mixed with is treated as no better than animals she can never be fully accepted. Tragically, her mere existence accounts for a huge amount of her unhappiness and even though she can choose to completely pass as one or the other she’ll know in her heart that no one accepts the real
The character of Helga Crane from the novel Quicksand by Nella Larsen is a very complex character, struggling with racial identity, social class and sexism. Helga Crane is a twenty-three year old schoolteacher that comes from a mixed racial background. Her birth mother was a Danish woman, while her birth father was of West African descent. In the novel, she is depicted as a very exotic, beautiful and intelligent looking woman. Her racial dilemma however has left her lonely, alienated and psychologically uncertain to her belonging in the world. While growing up, due to her significant dark-skin and European features she was ostracized by both the Caucasian and African American community. In order to find herself a place in the world, and feel at home she traveled from the South, to cities such as Chicago, Harlem and even the European city of Copenhagen in Denmark. When it came to her travels, everywhere she would go she stated a strong opinion on her belonging. With that being said, I would like to focus this paper on three passages regarding her life at Naxos, in Harlem, and in Copenhagen.
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand and Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986. Print.
There certainly was a divide between the two races, but now it was more of a passive aggressive approach. Biracial coupling and children were especially uncommon in this time, therefore society didn’t know how to react to it. Since it was so uncommon, society decided that if you weren’t a part of the norm, you wouldn’t be treated that way. The normal was to be of one race and to grow up, live, and die within the community of that race. Helga being from a mixed background did not fit it or conform to society’s norm in “Quicksand”. In Helga’s perfect world she would like to live in a community of both white and black people, and eventually hope that in the new generation would be a breed of mixed children like herself. Unfortunately this was not the society Helga was born into, therefore she could never find a true place to call home. She would move back and forth between both races. When she lives among blacks, she longs to experience the white side of her soul, but when she lives among whites, she misses being around black people. For this reason, Helga is always tempted to leave her current residence to go someplace else. Eventually Helga begins to give in to society out of exhaustion from trying to reject and break its rules. Larsen reveals this by writing “And after a little while she gave herself up wholly to the fascinating business of being seen, gaped at, desired.” Larsen is telling us how Helga gives in to society, even if it is in a seemingly positive light, she is depicting for us, her surrender to society and it’s rules. Once she realizes that she is giving in, she does all she can to try and escape doing that again. Although she tries to escape society’s claws and find herself a home, she discovers it is a lot more difficult that it was when she was
That Henrik Ibsen as a realist writer portrays Hedda as the epitome of a Victorian housewife restricted by Victorian values and confined into a loveless marriage, while being forced to watch as men take her life under their arm. However, Hedda Gabler continuously illustrates these psychological processes of fear and courage, she portrays herself fearless but not courageous, distinguishing the concept of a fearless person rather than someone who is courageous. While Hedda Gabler shows a cold-fearless exterior, she is in heart a coward as she lives through other people, instead of taking her own life into her hands. She hides behind her audacity and Ibsen notes “…Because I have such a dread of scandal. Yes, Hedda, you are a coward at heart. A terrible coward” (Ibsen 40).Her acts are determined by her own disposition as she believes she should be fearless, contaminated by her own criticism she find herself reluctant to believe that her life could change from mediocrity in a Victorian society. She titles herself fearless but by doing so she loses courage to face her repressed fears and takes no responsibility for something she believes she has no control over. Stanley J. Rachman’s Fear and Courage: A Psychological Perspective observes bomb-disposable operators long experience of fear when jumping as they move from courage to
Larsen, Nella. Quicksand ; And, Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. Blacksburg, VA.: Wider Publications, 2010. Print.
Hester is being considered as the devil (Bellis 1), which is a sign that the town’s people are slanderous and judgmental. Their judgment has caused her to be isolated. “… A woman who had once been innocent…” is now considered as “…the reality of sin” (Hawthorne 39). They look at her as a threat diminishing their community’s chance for purification because “there was the taint of deepest sin…” (Hawthorne 24). My apprehension of Pearl is that she is the fruit of evil, because she is seen as “immortal” (Hawthorne 11). Because, she has caused a ruckus, her immoral acts have disturbed the nature of their society. They think this is morally correct because, “Political and generational ambivalence has its psychological counterpart…” (Bellis 2), which give them the right to make her an evil outcast.
Samuels, Wilfred D, Loretta G. Woodard, and Tracie C. Guzzio. "Wheatley, Phillis." Encyclopedia of African-American Literature. New York: Facts on File, 2007. 543-45. Print.
But soon she is off, true to her free-minded self. It is interesting to note that Hurston does not dwell on the socio-economic situations (i.e., slavery, poverty) that bring about the two rapes, as another black author (perhaps Richard Wright?) might have done. Hurston instead focuses on Janie’s very real, very necessary search for self-fulfillment. This kind of focus was not common in Black literature at the time of the writing (early 1930’s), and Hurston drew much criticism for what was seen as a refusal to address the social, economic and political issues that preoccupied her contemporaries such as Wright and Ralph Ellison. However, it can be argued that what Hurston was attempting, a portrayal of a culturally “self-sufficient” black community, was just as necessary for a full realization of Black consciousness as was the “protest” literature of the Harlem Renaissance.
In fact, much of the suffering incurred from Hester’s sin results from her own actions. She, by her own choice, wears humble, dismal clothes; she moves to the outskirts of her town, but refuses to run away to a place where no one knows of her crime; she excludes herself from society, while society does not always exclude her. Instead of escaping her crime, Hester embraces it. She declares, “It lies not in the pleasure of the magistrates to take off this badge... Were I worthy to be quit of it, it would fall away of its own nature, or be transformed into something that should speak a different purport,” realizing the crime she committed and the fairness of her punishment—the scarlet letter (163).
When being questioned on the identity of her child’s father, Hester unflinchingly refuses to give him up, shouting “I will not speak!…my child must seek a heavenly Father; she shall never know an earthly one!” (47). Hester takes on the full brunt of adultery, allowing Dimmesdale to continue on with his life and frees him from the public ridicule the magistrates force upon her. She then stands on the scaffold for three hours, subject to the townspeople’s disdain and condescending remarks. However, Hester bears it all “with glazed eyed, and an air of weary indifference.” (48). Hester does not break down and cry, or wail, or beg for forgiveness, or confess who she sinned with; she stands defiantly strong in the face of the harsh Puritan law and answers to her crime. After, when Hester must put the pieces of her life back together, she continues to show her iron backbone and sheer determination by using her marvelous talent with needle work “to supply food for her thriving infant and herself.” (56). Some of her clients relish in making snide remarks and lewd commends towards Hester while she works, yet Hester never gives them the satisfaction of her reaction.
Gilbert, Sandra M. and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic: The Woman Writer and the Nineteenth-Century Literary Imagination. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979. Print.
It has been suggested that Hedda Gabler is a drama about the individual psyche -- a mere character study. It has even been written that Hedda Gabler "presents no social theme" (Shipley 333). On the contrary, I have found social issues and themes abundant in this work.
Helga feels most out of place when she has to confront the eroticism of the clubs in Harlem and her disassociation from sexuality. For example, Helga realizes how the music moves her in the club, “… the music died, she dragged herself back to the present with a conscious effort; and shameful certainty that not only had she been in the jungle, but she had enjoyed it…” (Larsen, 59). Helga also feels social disconnection from Anne Grey who’s hypocritical of the culture she participates in. Anne Grey makes her hypocrisy clear when she says, “That’s what’s the matter with the Negro race. They won’t stick together. She certainly ought to be ostracized”, while at the same time participating in white society and even enjoying the music and other cultural products (Larsen, 61). Due to Helga’s alternative views to that of the Harlem and New York City society she leaves for Denmark where instead of feeling appreciated she’s fetishized and put on display like a freak show. Helga realizes she’s being made into an eroticized version of herself when Herr Olsen says, “…You have the warm impulsive nature of Africa, but, my lovely, you have, I fear, the soul of a prostitute. You sell yourself to the highest bidder, I should of course be happy that it is I…” (Larsen, 87). For this and other reasons, Helga leaves Denmark and moves back to New York City but this is not her final
Hedda asks herself, “Oh, why does everything I touch become mean and ludicrous? It’s like a curse!” This comment emphasizes the fact that her ennui is affecting all of those around her. It has caused her to become nihilistic and wreak havoc on the lives of others for her own amusement.