Dear editor 

My name is Charles Tripoli and I’m a student at New York City College of Technology. Recently we read the story “Quicksand” by Nella Larson. And we used your online source for help.

This letter is to ask if you could update that source so people can annotate on it because as of writing this we can’t. Allowing people to do this would allow students to gather background information to help understand the text. One big example I will use is around Copenhagen. Understanding Copenhagen more would allow student to understand why Helga Crain feels like and outsider there not only because of her skin but the culture as well.

In the book Helga travels to Copenhagen after she has already been to New York and Chicago. So going to a Scandinavian area is a massive cultural shock. She barely speaks the language and is treated as an object more than a person.

Many of my fellow students didn’t really understand why she was treated so differently there but white people compared to in America. When you learn about Copenhagen more it makes sense. At that time a black woman wouldn’t be even remotely common so she was unique. And even though she was harmed or shamed she was being used by her family.

So an annotation explaining the culture of Copenhagen would help student understand why this happens more. Attached to this email is also a few examples of annotations that would help like one for Copenhagen it’s self as well a few words that if you don’t know you would lose what is trying to be said.

I hope this letter finds you and is taken seriously. Thank you for your time

Yours truly

Charles Tripoli