A few semesters ago I read a short story from the Harlem Renaissance called Quicksand By: Nella Larsen. In short, they store was about a young woman named Helga Crane who was of a mixed race and struggles to find her place amongst other African Americans who found her too light and White’s that found her too dark. Throughout the story Helga is also trying to find happiness, rather, the American dream. She goes from a steady home in Harlem, abroad to live with her white relatives where she is treated like someone of noble descent, back to Harlem simply because she was, “…homesick, not for America, but for Negroes…” (Norton 1584). To put it bluntly, though I liked the text I absolutely hated Helga Crane. All her character did throughout the piece was complain while only focusing on one side of her heritage. I suggested this piece only because it generated so much emotion in me that it continuously sticks out in my mind.
I believe that this story is similar to Sylvia Plath’s, “Lady Lazarus”. Both the story and the poem have female characters in them that present some sort of struggle in racist world and emit a sense of pain in the style of writing. Both characters are struggling in a world that they have very little control over though, they are two very different people yet both are exploited by harsh means. This story can be found in The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Volume D. There is a portion of the story online at http://books.google.com/books?id=yJ-PrecmPxkC&dq=quicksand+nella+larsen&pg=PP1&ots=P9YU2OGPSf&sig=o5qcrY8xBYGKaszworyeV18bKfI&hl=en&prev=http://www.google.com/search?q=quicksand,+nella+larsen&hl=en&safe=off&rlz=1T4GZHY_enUS250US250&sa=X&oi=print&ct=title&cad=one-book-with-thumbnail#PPR1,M1
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