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Chapter 9
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
As summer draws to a close, Helga’s nerves are increasingly frayed. She is always out of sorts, especially when she sees how happy and carefree the people around her are. As Helga arrives at work one day, she sees a letter from Uncle Peter. In the letter, he apologies for the way Mrs. Nilssen acted, and for having to cut off contact with Helga. He suggests that Helga go to visit her family in Copenhagen, who would be happy to take her in, and encloses a check for the inheritance he planned to leave her when he died, thinking it might come in handy sooner rather than later. Helga looks in disbelief at the check, which is for $5,000.
Larsen shows that Helga has run into the same problems she had at Naxos after a couple years there: she feels irritable, unhappy, and ultimately unable to fit in. Uncle Peter’s letter reminds Helga of her whiteness, which she has been suppressing, and triggers the thought that Helga always has when she feels out of place: she starts to wonder if going to a new place will enable her to escape the feelings of unhappiness she carries with her from suppressing some part of her identity.
Themes
Helga suddenly feels emboldened, and as if her irritation with Harlem is actually a “smoldering hatred.” She feels boxed-in and wants to rebel against being “yoked to these despised black folk.” Even though Helga is overcome with self-loathing at having such terrible thoughts about her “own people,” she can’t deny that she feels as if she doesn’t belong to “these dark segregated people,” and decides she needs to go to Copenhagen. Suddenly, Helga is excited. She daydreams about a happy life in Denmark, one without black people, or race problems, or the endless discussions about prejudice that cloud her days in Harlem.
Helga recognizes that she has been suppressing her whiteness. As before, when experiencing a complex feeling, Helga’s anger takes over. She directs it this time at the black community, which triggers her self-loathing. Instead of processing her feelings, she fantasizes about running away to a new life, just as she did when she became frustrated with Naxos. This time, Helga imagines life a place where she will not face the torment of being a mixed-race person in a segregated society.
Themes
At home, Helga gets dressed for Anne’s dinner party. She looks over her clothes and decides to put on a revealing, black, lacy dress that she promised Anne she would never wear. Feeling a little guilty about her impending departure, Helga straightens up the house before Anne gets home. She frets about telling Anne she’s leaving, and decides to put it off because “it’s too hot,” and starts visualizing herself living blissfully in a culture where she’ll be “appreciated and understood.”
Larsen again highlights Helga’s emotional repression as Helga makes excuses to avoid having a difficult confrontation with Anne. Once again, Helga is tempted to run away rather than embrace a confrontation or emotional encounter. Larsen also emphasizes Helga’s yearning to feel at home somewhere, through Helga’s fanciful imaginations about her future life in Denmark.
Themes
