Book Review: Quicksand tells of an educated young woman, Helga Crane, who knows she isn't white, but believes she can't live within the black middle class ("why ... should she be yoked to these despised black folk"). She identifies more with the black world ("She hated white people with a deep and burning hatred ..."), perhaps because of how's she's perceived or the ubiquity of the one-drop rule: Helga Crane (and Larsen?) has bought into the dominant paradigm (race as a social construct). She's unhappy, self-loathing, she doesn't fit. Her unhappiness has made her a prickly and difficult person, self-destructive, which contributes to her inability to find a home anywhere. Upon leaving the U.S. she has a "blessed sense of belonging to herself alone and not to a race," like "a released bird." Ultimately, Quicksand is not a hopeful book, suggesting that there are too many pitfalls along the way of finding her identity, both racially, within a class ("very few Negroes of the better class have children ..."), or as a woman. All is disappointment. Unendurable. In a fit of pique Crane leaps into an uncertain future. Although the options for the multiracial are different today, Quicksand still has much that is valuable to share about identity, and Larsen digs deep into the complex character of Helga Crane. What she wanted was to live in both worlds, rather than trying to fit into only one. [4★]
No comments:
Post a Comment