Race, Segregation, and Society Theme Analysis

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 Larsen argues that although slavery has ended, many people still privilege white culture and think in terms of rigid black and white race categories, which are harmful to the goals of social progress and inclusivity in an integrated post-slavery American society.

At the start of the story, Helga decides to leave her teaching job at Naxos (a boarding school for black girls in the South) because she believes that nearly all the staff assume white culture is superior, and that this undermines the institution’s goal of empowering young black students. To Helga, Naxos merely perpetuates the view that people of color should fit into society by trying to act as “white” as possible. In other words, Larsen thinks that attitudes at “uplift” institutions are too caught up in white mimicry to be truly progressive. At a lunchtime sermon, a famous white preacher praises the black community for achieving progress, but advises them to “know when to stop.” He suggests that knowing enough to “stay in their places” shows “good taste,” and behaving as such will eradicate the “race problem.” Miss MacGooden, the dormitory matron, admonishes students for being unladylike and acting like “savages from the backwoods” without realizing that most of the students are, in fact, from the backwoods. Helga feels that the ethos at Naxos suppress self-expression, “individuality,” and “innovation,” and reduces the institution to a celebration of “the white man’s magnanimity” (or generosity). Rather than empowering students to achieve their fullest potential as individuals in society, Naxos encourages students to be grateful for white people’s generosity, and to never threaten white culture’s authority.

After leaving Naxos and living in Chicago for a few weeks, Helga moves to Harlem in New York City, a thriving urban community for people of color. Through Helga’s reflections on life in this community, Larsen suggests that when black people mimic white cultural tastes in social and cultural settings, they end up preserving the idea that white culture is essentially superior. Near the middle of the story, Helga reflects on her time in Harlem and thinks disparagingly of black Americans who “didn’t want to be like themselves. What they wanted, asked for, begged for was to be like their white overlords.” For instance, Helga’s roommate in Harlem (a wealthy black woman named Anne) is very vocal about celebrating black culture in Harlem, yet she nonetheless models her own life on affluent white society’s “clothes, their manners, and their gracious ways of living” while looking down on “the songs, the dances, the softly blurred speech of the [black] race.” In aligning herself with white culture, Anne reveals that, on some level, she thinks it’s superior to black culture.

Ironically, while Anne aspires to mimic white cultural tastes, she thinks integration between races is immoral. Larsen depicts Anne’s attitude as divisive because it underplays Harlem’s racial diversity and makes mixed-race people feel like outsiders for their whiteness in black communities. Mrs. Hayes-Rore also warns Helga not to mention too much to Anne about her white relatives when they first meet, because “colored people won’t understand.” Her warning indicates that Anne dislikes mixed-race people, and will be unwelcoming towards people with some white heritage, like Helga. Helga soon finds out that Mrs. Hayes-Rore was right.  Anne is repulsed by Audrey Denney, a young woman who has parties where black and white people can mingle freely. Anne says Audrey Denny is a “disgusting creature” who should be “ostracized” for dating white men. When Helga presses Anne about her comments, Anne becomes even more intolerant. Anne’s refusal to budge on this issue makes Helga feel angry and revolted, as it implies there is something unnatural in Helga’s existence as a mixed-race person. Towards the end of the story, Helga attends a mixed party with black, West Indian, and white people. Many guests struggle to socialize with each other, and “sulk in widely separated places in big rooms,” while people like Anne express “open disapproval.” The undercurrent of hostility from people like Anne creates a tense and divisive atmosphere, even though this is one of the few environments Helga enjoys because she doesn’t feel out of place.

In contrast, Helga’s descriptions of the people around her depict a much more diverse world than either Anne or the staff at Naxos are able to see. Helga resists merely describing people as black or white but uses a vivid array of colors and words to emphasize a racial spectrum, rather than a binary picture of race. At Naxos, Helga describes her students as “ebony, bronze, and gold.”  Likewise, at a jazz club in Harlem, Helga marvels “at the gradations within this oppressed race of hers. There were sooty black, shiny black, taupe, mahogany, bronze, copper, gold, orange, yellow, peach, ivory, pinky white, pasty white.” She also sees flashes of Africa, Europe, and Asia in their faces, and describes the crowd as a “moving mosaic.” Through Helga’s eyes, Larsen emphasizes that dividing people into “black” and “white” is reductive, and fails to capture the full range of diversity in American society.

Larsen’s criticisms of early 20th-century American culture imply that although black people are no longer enslaved, many people still need to change embedded attitudes about binary race divides, white mimicry, and segregation, for American society to become truly inclusive.