Category Archives: Glossary

Platitudinous

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Platitudinous: noun: (of a remark or statement) used too often to be interesting or thoughtful; hackneyed.

Source: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/platitudinous

From: “Quicksand” by Nella Larsen, Chapter 23 – Page 151

“Her husband was still, as he had always been, deferentially kind and incredulously proud of her-and verbally encouraging. Helga tried not to see that he had rather lost any personal interest in her, except for the short spaces between the times when she was preparing for or recovering from childbirth. She shut her eyes to the fact that his encouragement had become a little platitudinous, limited mostly to “The Lord will look out for you,”…”

The word platitudinous is used to describe Helga Crane’s feeling towards her husband’s words. Her husband has repeated his words so much that she is growing somewhat tired of them.

 

Tonic

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Tonic, noun: one that invigorates, restores, refreshes, or stimulates; medicinal

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tonic

We read this word in chapter 9 of Quicksand. Helga uses it in the context of needing something to cure her malaise with New York and how she begins to hate it.

“As the days multiplied, her need of something, something vaguely familiar, but which she could not put a name to and hold for definite examination, became almost intolerable. She went through moments of overwhelming anguish. She felt shut in, trapped. “Perhaps I’m tired, need a tonic or something,” she reflected. So she consulted a physician, who, after a long, solemn examination, said that there was nothing wrong, nothing at all. “A change of scene, perhaps for a week or so, or a few days away from work,” would put her straight most likely.”

Adroit

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Adroit, adjective: having or showing skill, cleverness, or resourcefulness in handling situations.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/adroit

We saw the adverb form of this word (adroitly) about halfway through chapter 7 of Quicksand. It was used to describe how Ms. Hayes-Rore changed subjects during a conversation in a smooth way during their train ride from Chicago to New York.

“The girl wished to hide her turbulent feeling and to appear indifferent to Mrs. Hayes-Rore’s opinion of her story. The woman felt that the story, dealing as it did with race intermingling and possibly adultery, was beyond definite discussion. For among black people, as among white people, it is tacitly understood that these things are not mentioned—and therefore they do not exist. Sliding adroitly out from under the precarious subject to a safer, more decent one, Mrs. Hayes-Rore asked Helga what she was thinking of doing when she got back to Chicago.”

Formality

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Formality, noun: an established form or procedure that is required or conventional.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/formality

We first read this word in The Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka. Its used in reference to an unnecessary action that is performed at each of the artists productions, which in this case was a volunteer making sure that the artist was not sneaking food.

“Apart from the changing groups of spectators there were also constant observers chosen by the public—strangely enough they were usually butchers—who, always three at a time, were given the task of observing the hunger artist day and night, so that he didn’t get something to eat in some secret manner. It was, however, merely a formality, introduced to reassure the masses, for those who understood knew well enough that during the period of fasting the hunger artist would never, under any circumstances, have eaten the slightest thing, not even if compelled by force. The honour of his art forbade it.”

 

Exalted

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Exalted (Adjective) – In a state of extreme happiness.

Taken from Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, Chapter 19

“Helga Crane never forgot it. She had carried away from yesterday’s meeting a feeling of increasing elation. It had seemed to her that she hadn’t been so happy, so exalted, in years, if ever.“

In this context, Larsen used the word exalted to describe even further how elated Helga is to meet with Dr. Anderson whom she is attracted on.

 

Calamitous

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alamitous: noun: being, causing, or accompanied by calamity

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/calamitous

From: “Quicksand” by Nella Larsen, Chapter 24 – Page 157

“Helga nodded and tried unsuccessfully to make a little smile. She was glad of Miss Hartley’s presence. It would, she felt, protect her from so much. She mustn’t, she thought to herself, get well too fast. Since it seemed she was going to get well. In bed she could think, could have a certain amount of quiet. Of aloneness. In that period of racking pain and calamitous fright Helga had learned what passion and credulity could do to one.”

From this passage, we can see that a period of chaos has allowed Helga to learn more life lessons.

Facile

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Facile, adjective: without depth; superficial.

Source: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/facile

We encountered at the end of the first paragraph of chapter 3 of Quicksand. The author uses the word to describe how the campus at Naxos was beautiful, but only in appearance.

“On one side of the long, white, hot sand road that split the
flat green, there was a little shade, for it was bordered with
trees. Helga Crane walked there so that the sun could not so
easily get at her. As she went slowly across the empty campus
she was conscious of a vague tenderness for the scene spread
out before her. It was so incredibly lovely, so appealing, and so
facile. The trees in their spring beauty sent through her restive
mind a sharp thrill of pleasure.”

Snatch

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Snatch, noun: a brief, fragmentary, or hurried part.

Source: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/snatch

We encountered the plural form of this word in the second chapter of Quicksand. It is used to describe the activity that Helga hears outside her door while she hides in her room.

“In the corridor beyond her door was a medley of noises
incident to the rising and preparing for the day at the same
hour of many schoolgirls—foolish giggling, indistinguishable
snatches of merry conversation, distant gurgle of running water,
patter of slippered feet, low-pitched singing, good-natured
admonitions to hurry, slamming of doors, clatter of various
unnamable articles, and—suddenly—calamitous silence.”

Furtive

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Furtive (adjective) – done in a quiet and secretive way to avoid being noticed.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/furtive

“Helga Crane felt singularly apart from it all. Entering the waiting doorway, they descended through a furtive, narrow passage, into a vast subterranean room. Helga smiled, thinking that this was one of those places characterized by the righteous as a hell.”

Understanding the word ‘furtive’ tells that the ones that Helga was with when walking in, what seems to be a hallway, were walking in a quiet manner as if they didn’t want anyone to know they were there.