Quicksand by Nella Larson focuses on Helga Crane, a biracial woman who is discontent with her life. As she tries to achieve internal satisfaction by moving to different cities, she experiences many different attitudes from her surrounding people. In the end, her dreams have dissipated as she becomes a mother. This tragic mulatta can be mapped to Maureen Murdock’s Heroine's journey. Specifically, when Helga meets with Audrey Denney, a Biracial woman similar to herself, this scene can be represented as meeting with the Goddess. The place where Helga meets Audrey is in Harlem. Helga is advised to hide her biraciality as the people living there, for the most part, completely reject white people. Helga stays with Anne, who is particularly anti white. She goes as far as to say that “the most wretched Negro prostitute that walks One Hundred and Thirty-fifth Street is more than any president of these United States, not excepting Abraham Lincoln.” By living in Harlem, Helga has to completely discard her white side and embrace her blackness. At first, Helga loves Harlem as she finally gets to let out a side of herself which she had to hide at Naxos, a place that was extremely anti-black. However, as she repeatedly has to talk down the white side of her, she becomes increasingly angsty. She feels she doesn’t belong because she is half black and half white, and everyone is anti white. However, all is changed when she meets Audrey Denney at a Cabaret party. Audrey Denney is a biracial woman who mingles with white and black people. She doesn't care that people like Anne are disgusted at her, and is comfortable with her position in life. She represents what Helga would like to be - mingling between both races without a care in the world. The author even says that Helga watches her with “not contempt, but envious admiration”. Audrey Denney shows Helga that she doesn’t need to completely reject one side of herself to fit in. Furthermore, by embracing both sides of her, Audrey Denney also represents a perfect harmony between masculine and feminine. So far, in Harlem, Helga has been pushed to discard her white mother’s feminine side. By confidently displaying both sides of her heritage, Audrey prompts Helga to want to reconnect with her mothers side by going to Copenhagen. Audrey Denney was an extremely important character in Quicksand. She helps Helga accept that she will have to embrace both sides of her to be completely happy. Even though she didn’t know it, she helped guide Helga to a happier path.
Hi Renee, I really like your interpretation of the importance of Audrey Denney to the story. I think that seeing her as a reflection of the best outcome that could happen to Helga adds to the tragedy of what happens in the end. I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if they both met again.
ReplyDeleteAudrey Denney is an interesting character to write about. Audrey is the Helga we should've had, but she also serves as an argument that biracial people just didn't have a lot of social rights in the past. I wonder how a Quicksand in the perspective of Audrey would've looked like. Surely a lot less interesting, but more wholesome, I guess.
ReplyDeleteHi Renee! I think this post took on an interpretation of the Hero’s Journey that I had never really considered before! Audrey Denney as the Meeting with the Goddess was something that I didn’t think about at the time while reading Quicksand, but makes a lot of sense with the information you used to back it up. Another thing I wanted to add to this argument is that if I remember correctly, Audrey Denney was also shown to be around Dr. Anderson, someone who Helga was slowly coming to like romantically. This could’ve been another reason for Helga’s admiration and envy for her.
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