Category Archives: Nella Larsen

Dissociate

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Dissociate- (verb)

Definition: to end your relationship with or connection to someone or something : to separate (yourself) from someone or something

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dissociate

Found in: “Quicksand” By, Nella Larsen. (P. 378)

Passage: “When she was in the street, she ran. Her only impulse was to get as far away from her uncles house, and this woman, his wife who so plainly wished to dissociate herself from the outrage of her very existence.”

After reading this definition I now understand that Helga wanted to get as far away as possible from her uncle and his wife. Her uncles wife didn’t want any type of connection or relation with Helga.

Berth

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Berth- (noun)

Definition: a place to sleep on a ship, train, etc.

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/berth

Found in: “Quicksand” By, Nella Larsen. (P. 377)

Passage: “Her eyes sought the small watch at her wrist. Ten hours to Chicago. Would she be lucky enough to prevail upon the conductor to let her occupy a berth, or would she have to remain here all night, without sleep, without food, without drink and with that disgusting door panel to which her purposely averted eyes were constantly, involuntarily staring?”

By reading this definition I now understand that Helga was contemplating in her head if she’d be lucky enough to win over the conductor to see if he’d just let her relax in the train or she’d be kicked out helplessly.

Loathsome

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Loathsome- (adjective)

Definition: causing feelings of hatred or disgust : very bad

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/loathsome

Found in: “Quicksand” By, Nella Larsen. (P. 376)

Passage: “Her rescue by Uncle Pete, who had sent her to school, a school for Negroes, where for the first time she could breathe freely, where she discovered that because one was dark, one was not necessarily loathsome and could, therefore, consider oneself without repulsion.”

After reading this definition I now understand that Helga was explaining that for once she had gone to school with a sense of relief and just because someone was colored didn’t mean that others hated them or were disgusted.

Helga Crane’s Character (Late)

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As the novel began, I got a sense that Helga liked the quiet and being alone because she didn’t like where she was at Naxos. She was also described as being irritated and having a lot of anger. Helga liked teaching at Naxos at first, but after 2 years, she began to hate it. They were racist at Naxos, and since Helga is biracial, this could have been a reason why she started hating it. She could have also felt angry because in the novel it says that she was like a pity case for her uncle and because she had “negro blood” she would never amount to anything. I don’t believe that that was the life she wanted for herself.

“Most of her earnings had gone into clothes, into books, into the furnishings of the room which held her. All her life Helga Crane had loved and longed for nice things. Indeed, it was this craving, this urge for beauty which had helped to bring her disfavor in Naxos- “pride” and “vanity” her detractors called it.” (pg 14)

This passage shows me that Helga could not be who she wanted to be in Naxos and so this is why she was unhappy there. It also wasn’t the lifestyle that she wanted. I believe that she longed to be successful because of all the thing that she wanted. It’s interesting because Helga’s character seems like its constantly changing to me. This is one reason why I really don’t believe she was happy at Naxos. I believe that what she experienced there wasn’t what she thought she thought the experience would be like because why else would she hate teaching at Naxos if she liked it at first. Helga’s character was also developing because of the people that she was around, like the singing children that she loved and James, who she was with because they were both lonely.

Caricature

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Quicksand / Chapter 18

“It was, too, as she was uncomfortably aware even a trifle ridiculous, and mentally caricatured herself, moving shuttle like from continent to continent. From the prejudiced restrictions of the New World to the easy formality of the old. From the pale calm of Copenhagen to the colorful lure of Harlem.”

 

Caricature- Noun

A representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect ( The dictionary app)

I understand this passage better by knowing the meaning of these two words. Helen felt as if she was unimportant. As she traveled back and forth in between continents that void she was looking to fill , could define her entire existence. She seemed to exaggerate the importance of every detail of everything, and now that exaggeration was of herself. In  her mind, she was looked at as a joke in Harlem as well as Denmark, Copenhagen.

 

 

 

Finishing Quicksand…

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For our final discussion on Quicksand, let’s think about Helga’s life after she leaves New York. Write a comment–roughly 150-200 words–in which you consider one of the following issues:

*what motivates Helga to leave New York?

*why does she leave the way she does?

*what’s different about her life in her new locale?

*do you think Helga will again repeat her pattern of enjoying a place, tiring of it, and then leaving it? Why or why not?

*what message do you think the novel conveys overall through its ending?

Then comment on one other comment, roughly 100-150 words.

Quicksand

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” Incited. That was it, the guiding principle of her life in Copenhagen. She was incited to make an  impression. She was incited to inflame attention and admiration. She was dressed for it, subtly schooled for it. And after a while she gave herself up wholly to the fascinating business of being seen, gaped at, desired. “

Helga had been several places before she made it back to Denmark. She was finally now in Copenhagen. Though she was originally from this place she had Vague memories. Helga was influenced by her aunt and convinced that she was to be and dress in a certain fashion. Being in Denmark shaped Helga Cranes personality in various ways. Denmark was unlike Harlem, where race was of great importance, or from Chicago where she had previously been also. In Denmark the men were different, white for that matter. It just seemed that in the beginning of her quest back to Denmark she was looking for a piece of herself that maybe she had never encountered.

In Copenhagen she was aggravated with the impression that was to be made. This impression didn’t seem to be a racial one, like of that everywhere else it seemed, but more of an impression of class. Helga seemed to become more accepting of herself after a few minor changes to her wardrobe. Every place that Helga had been was a contribution to the development of her character, but none similar to Copenhagen. Helga was able to get in touch with her white side, but was actually able in Denmark to be proud of her dark skin.  Being back in Denmark helped, her sense of fashion and gave her the attention that she thought she desired. Turns out that after all of the happiness she had found, and the feeling of acceptance, there was still something about this place that Helga was not satisfied with. Though. Denmark, Copenhagen was, yet another temporary venture it helped Helga to learn things about herself that she never knew.

 

Midterm – Passage 2

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“She didn’t know. Couldn’t tell. But there was, she knew something else.  Happiness, she supposed. Whatever that might be. What exactly, she wondered, was happiness. Very positively she wanted it. Yet her conception of it had no tangibility. She couldn’t define it. Isolate it, and contemplate it as she could some other abstract things. Hatred, for instance. Or kindness.”

 

 

 

  1. Quicksand
  2. By Nella Larsen
  3. In this passage it is made clear that Helga becomes plagued with feelings of doubt, insecurity, and alienation once again. Helga, born of a white mother and a black father, has not been able to identify herself as either white or black. Since her sense of self is always censored by society’s restrictions and expectations she does not feel happy. As a result, she is constantly fleeing from place to place in search of a society wherein she can fit in. Because she does not belong to one race completely, she never truly finds a place where she belongs. Helga is questioning her own identity and her connections to the community around her. She can’t even identify her feelings as hatred or kindness.
  4. As a half black half white educated women Helga’s inner conflict and peace and her loneliness connects to a larger issue experienced by many biracial people. Race and gender are the forefront of Quicksand. Although it appears that the biracial person may have the best of both worlds, there will always be questions regarding their belonging and acceptance to their environment. Helga did not feel completely as a part of a certain community. She fled from her surroundings every time she thought things didn’t go well for her. Self identity crisis, acceptance issues, and not being able to identify oneself under one group as black or white becomes an issue in this case.

Midterm exam preparation

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1) Quicksand

2) By: Nella Larsen

“Helga’s essentially likable and charming personality was smudged out. She had felt this for a long time. Now she faced with determination that other truth which she had refused to formulate in her thoughts, the fact that she was utterly unfitted for teaching, even for mere existence, in Naxos.”

3) In this passage, I believe Helga was going through many emotions and feelings at this very moment. Helga first went into Naxos with the ambition and determination to help teach and motivate the younger generation but did not accomplish anything she had originally set out to do. She had finally felt like a complete failure, that there was no point of her existence anymore. Helga was completely disappointed in herself and even felt that she was not fit for teaching anymore. All the joy and life in her personality was entirely gone, like a person left with no soul. She no longer had the ambition or want to teach anymore, especially in Naxos. Helga felt that the excellent community and school she was thought she was teaching at was no longer a school. She felt like the life had died out everything as well as her own self. The school and community had basically become a machine with no individualism or innovations left.

4) I believe this passage has a lot to do with the theme of the book, because I feel like this was the start of Helga’s want and need to her moving out of that area. I believe this is where she began to start doing her own soul searching trying to find herself. I think Helga was confused and wasn’t sure of what she wanted to do with herself anymore which led to her moving to many different locations with the same outcome and no further progress.

Discussion of Quicksand, Part 2

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in Denmark:

  • felt spoiled
  • more like a pet than a person
  • can’t imagine she’ll be here much longer

What made her go?

  • her uncle gave her money
  • disillusioned by New York
  • Dr. Anderson–wants to get away from him.
  • Anne–“the race question”

Why doesn’t she want to go back?

  • because of the race problem in America
  • because Anne is marrying Anderson
  • betrayed? Anne wants what she shouldn’t want
  • doesn’t want to do any soul-searching
  • it’s because Anderson is marrying Anne, her close friend, rather than if he were marrying someone else that bothers her
  • the race reason seems less shallow
  • her inner reason is because of the wedding

At the Circus:

  • demeaning, she doesn’t like the way that the audience is looking at them
  • felt like it was mocking her
  • it exposed a part of her she left behind in America
  • compares it to the way everyone wanted her to dress provocatively, exposed