Nella Larsen "Quicksand": Difference between revisions
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<p style="text-align:center;">'''Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen (1893-1964)'''</p>
[[Image:Nella-larsen-1.jpg|frame| Nella Larsen]]
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*Plot Summary
*Major Works
*Websites & Referenced Materials
'''Plot Summary'''
"Nella" Larsen introduces the main character Helga Crane, a young girl of twenty two, with delicate but well turned arms and legs. Helga teaches at an elite southern school named Naxos (referenced to a Greek Island in the Aegean Sea). ''The school was an example of the theory that African Americans needed to improve their lot, the policy of "Black Uplift".'' The education at Naxos, implored no new ideas and tolerated no new innovations, in other words individualism was very discouraged. Helga becomes disenchanted with the hypocrisy at the prestigious school and begins re-evaluating her career choice as a teacher.
<p style="text-align:center;">''"The great community, she thought. was no longer a school. It had grown into a machine. It was now a show place in the black belt, exemplification of the Whiteman's magnanimity, refutation of the black man's inefficiency. Life had died out of it"
'''''-Quicksand'''''</p>
'''
▲<p style="text-align:left;"></p>'''Chapters One-Three'''<br>
▲"Nella" Larsen introduces the main character Helga Crane, a young girl of twenty two, with delicate but well turned arms and legs. Helga teaches at an elite southern school named Naxos (referenced to a Greek Island in the Aegean Sea). ''The school was an example of the theory that African Americans needed to improve their lot, the policy of "Black Uplift".'' The education at Naxos, implored no new ideas and tolerated no new innovations, in other words individualism was very discouraged. Helga becomes disenchanted with the hypocrisy at the prestigious school and begins re-evaluating her career choice as a teacher.<br><br>
▲<p style="text-align:center;">''"The great community, she thought. was no longer a school. It had grown into a machine. It was now a show place in the black belt, exemplification of the Whiteman's magnanimity, refutation of the black man's inefficiency. Life had died out of it"<br>'''''-Quicksand'''''<br><p style="text-align:left;"></p>'''''Chapters Four-Six'''''<br>
Helga after a reverse psychological debate with the new principal at the school, a Dr. Anderson, and struggling with guilt regarding a need for service to ones race in educating young students, Helga makes a decision. She boldly leaves the town of Naxos and boards a train bound for Chicago. She soon discovers that the city is not her home. In reality Helga has no home or friends. But, after a series of bad interviews and bad employment agencies, Helga finds herself employed as a paid companion to an educated Mrs. Hayes-Rore, as a speech coordinator and secretary of sorts. <br>*''NOTE* In these chapters the character Helga bears a striking resemblance to Larsen herself. The references to the name Helga may be of Germanic or Eastern European origin, as well as the references to the Chicago area, and a similar family situation of a biracial child.'' <br>
<p style="text-align:center;">''"Helga Crane, who had been born in this dirty, mad, hurrying city, had no home here. She had not even any friends here."'' '''''-Quicksand'''''</p><br>
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'''Chapters Twenty-Twenty-Five'''<br>
Helga after being rebuked by Dr. Anderson flees into the night. In a terrific thunder storm Helga who is drenched finds refuge in a church where numerous individuals give her comfort. Amidst all the withering, chanting and dancing, reminiscent of a southern revival, Helga meets the Reverend Mr. Pleasant Green. Suspecting that God had directed her to the church Helga thinks she found her "something," her happiness. She quickly marries the Reverend Green. Helga lives and endures the duties of a wife of a Reverend and has 3 children in the space of 20 months, and one soon after. As the novel concludes, Helga is bewildered that God has indeed made her endure hardship, childbirth, poverty and much more. She plans to leave when she notices she is again pregnant with her fifth child.
<p style="text-align:center;">''"She had ruined her life, made it impossible ever again to do the things that she wanted, have the things that she loved, and mingle with the people she liked. She had to put it brutally as anyone could, been a fool."'' '''''-Quicksand'''''</p
'''Major Works'''<br>
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* Quicksand (1928)
* Passing (1929)
* Sanctuary (1930)
''*Websites & Referenced Materials''<br>
Paul Ruben's Perspectives on American Literature-reference section about Nella Larsen[http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/TABLE.HTML]<br>*Note-Literary Traveler requires a log in and account information*<br>
Literary Traveler-Discovering Parallels to Nella Larsen (focusing on "Passing")
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PBS-American Masters Series, The American Novel
[http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americannovel/ideas/color_article.html]<br>
Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Second Edition. New York, W.W. Norton & Company. 2004. Print. Pages 953-962, 1085-1167.
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