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Chapter 16
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
Summer has come and gone, and Helga is still in Harlem, though she’s no longer living with Anne. Anne has returned from her honeymoon with Dr. Anderson, but avoids Helga because she is jealous of her. Helga is a little restless in Harlem, but still happy to be “surrounded by hundreds, thousands, of dark-eyed brown folk,” and really feels that these are her people. Harlem seems relaxed, joyous, and carefree in comparison to her “pretentious, stately life in Copenhagen.” She still thinks she’ll go back eventually though. Helga feels “spiritually” free in Harlem, but is “physically” free in Denmark. She imagines herself being relentlessly tossed back and forth between these two places.
After standing out so much in Denmark, Helga is happy to blend in again, in Harlem’s diverse community. Helga feels “spiritually” free in Harlem because people treat her like a person there (even though blackness is oppressed by white mimicry and white superiority). Yet Helga feels “physically” free in Copenhagen because her body is admired and desired there (even though she is not treated as a person by others). This suggests that if there is no place where a person can feel accepted in mind and body, they will always feel divided.
Themes
Helga feels pity for the Americans of color who know nothing else than life in America, and feels outright contempt for their patriotism. She acknowledges, however, that their lives are joyous and carefree, while she feels a creeping sense of insecurity. Helga feels she ought to return to Denmark, and blames Axel Olsen for triggering her departure, though deep down she feels like a fool for refusing him. She wishes she had married him so that she could rub her marriage to a white man in Anne’s face.
Helga’s reflections about patriotism criticizes the inequalities that people of color face in the American society. Helga’s insecurity, meanwhile, communicates that she feels like an outsider because of her mixed cultural background. Helga’s petty thoughts about using a relationship to snub Anne expose Helga’s emotional immaturity in romantic matters.
Themes
