Returning to America, she fails to acknowledge her own feelings for a man until it is too late, and out of frustration, she reacts with an extreme change of path, marrying a preacher from the South, and finding happiness in rural life and religion - for a while. She moves to Copenhagen, and enjoys her exotic reputation - for a while, until she starts missing the half of her identity that is rooted in African American culture. The politicised environment that thrives in rage against everything that represents white life excludes a part of her as well. Over Chicago, where she faces the blatant racism of her white relatives, she arrives in Harlem, and enjoys the thrill of the city for a while - until she realises that she has been there long enough to know that is not her world either. This she saw clearly now, and with cold anger at all the past futile effort. “She could neither conform, nor be happy in her unconformity. Resigning from a teaching position at a conservative school in the South of the US because she can’t face its hypocrisy, she starts her rebellion against a society that she can’t adopt. Once used to moving on, it is hard to stay in one place.įor Helga, born in an era less populated with global nomads, being the daughter of a Danish mother and a West Indian straying father seemed to be an irreconcilable and unique identity. Today it is quite common, but still disturbing, especially during adolescence, which I can confirm myself, having lived through a childhood of regular relocations, and now repeating the pattern with my own children. Had Helga been my contemporary, I would have told her about the ever growing literature on the strange identity of third culture or cross culture kids, growing up between different communities, partly at home in both, but never fully belonging. Somehow, Helga Crane’s odyssey through life - from excitement to disappointment, to rebellion, break-out, and new excitement, leading to repeated disappointment - mirrors and reflects the difficulties all people face who do not completely fit into their environment. But there is so much more, touching on the universal and timeless questions of identity and meaning of life. And it would be both right and enough to make it a worthwhile reading experience.
You could argue that it is a story about the peculiar hardships of young African American women of the 1920s.
Somehow, Helga Crane’s odyssey through life - from excitement to disappointment, to rebellion, break-out, and new excitement, leading to repeated disappointment Oh, this short novel got under my skin! Oh, this short novel got under my skin! You could argue that it is a story about the peculiar hardships of young African American women of the 1920s. It also evocatively portrays the racial and gender restrictions that can mark a life.more
Quicksand, Nella Larsen's powerful first novel, has intriguing autobiographical parallels and at the same time invokes the international dimension of African American culture of the 1920s.
Moving to Harlem and eventually to Denmark, she attempts to carve out a comfortable life and place for herself, but ends up back where she started, choosing emotional freedom that quickly translates into a narrow existence. As a young woman, Helga teaches at an all-black school in the South, but even here she feels different. Moving to Harlem and eventually to Denmark, she attempts to carve out a comfortable life and place for herself, but ends up back where she sta Born to a white mother and an absent black father, and despised for her dark skin, Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself. Born to a white mother and an absent black father, and despised for her dark skin, Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself.
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