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Chapter 5
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
Helga wakes on a dull, rainy day, and frowns when she remembers she has to find work. She dresses in the simplest clothes she owns: a tailored blue suit and a silk blouse. Helga finds the library, but is out of there in 15 minutes, disappointed to learn that she needs all sorts of special qualifications for library work. She wonders what else she could do. She remembers an employment agency she heard of, but spends hours wandering around and doing a little shopping, so she gets there too late in the day. Helga decides to go back first thing in the morning. Instead, she treats herself to a few days off, and winds up at the employment agency three days later, when she’s almost out of money.
Helga’s choice of clothing communicates her status as a misfit in this society in many ways. She owns fine clothing and nice things, and therefore comes across as too affluent for a typical job-seeker, though she has no financial resources of her own. Once again, Helga avoids facing a difficult situation, and distracts herself with shopping and sightseeing, despite the fact that her behavior will cause greater difficulties for her in the long run.
Themes
Helga is embarrassed as she approaches the brusque clerks in the employment office. She explains she’s a teacher, but the disinterested clerk interrupts her to say they can’t help as most of their jobs are in domestic labor. Helga says she’ll take any work, but when the clerk realizes Helga has no references, she turns Helga away. Days and weeks pass, as Helga tries unsuccessfully to find work. Without a reference, it’s almost impossible. She feels small, lost, and alone.
Through Helga’s encounters at the employment agency, Larsen shows the lack of opportunity for for women of color in early post-slavery U.S. society. The only jobs on offer are for work as a cleaner or maid. There is nothing suitable for Helga, who is well-educated and well-dressed. Once again, Helga is a misfit, but this time, because of her educated background and affluent appearance. Larsen thus shows that this society is limited in its perception of what women of color are capable of achieving.
Themes
Just as she is losing hope, Helga receives a note from Ida Ross at the employment office. Ida Ross explains that a woman named Mrs. Hayes-Rore needs help writing speeches on “the race problem” on the train ride from Chicago to New York. Helga is to meet Mrs. Hayes-Rore in under an hour. Helga is offended that nobody asked her if she actually wants the job. She is about to storm out in a rage, but she bites her tongue, as she becomes enlivened with a new plan: she will ride the train with Mrs. Hayes-Rore, collect a reference from her, and then look for work in New York. The world around Helga suddenly seems brighter, and the shop windows shine with radiance.
Helga’s turbulent emotions once again rise to the fore. Even though she desperately needs a job, she becomes indignant when offered one. Larsen shows yet again that Helga struggles to handle her emotions—especially her anger, which surfaces frequently. Mrs. Hayes-Rore’s race is ambiguous, though Larsen’s use of the word “yellow” (like her earlier description of Helga) implies that Mrs. Hayes-Rore is likely mixed-race as well. Once again, Larsen describes people in ways that avoid binary black and white categorizations in order to emphasize a racial spectrum.
Themes
