The Multiple Inadequacies of Race

Quicksand.   What a book.  Thus far, about halfway through, Nella Larsen has painted an image of Helga Crane which demands attention.  A mulatto woman during the Harlem Renaissance, Helga journeys through many obstacles underlying being of mixed race, experiencing, as the title of my blog suggests, multiple faults within society and within herself in regards to race perception.  She delves into the questions of identity and self- confidence with little guidance from family and friends, and instead leads the reader on a quest that while not altogether new, touches upon some "touchy" subjects that few authors that I have read have touched upon in such a troubling way.  I think that is what sets the book apart for me thus far: it makes me uncomfortable.  And not in the way that Invisible Man or The Narrative of Frederick Douglass makes me uncomfortable.  Helga Crane in Quicksand forces me to think beyond terms of black and white, equality and inequality, and what it really means to fit into a community. 
  Often, when considering race issues, I think in terms of "equality" and "inequality."  Helga, however, offers a slightly different perspective.   She, on one hand shows through her behavior at Naxos, that she doesn't approve of equality if it means playing into the hands of Whites to create students who fit a particular mold.  However, she also does not believe that the quest for equality is the only important search.  She feels isolated from her white family because she is partly black, but comes to hate black people for only discussing race. Her own thoughts are dominated in part by the need to define herself while considering race, yet she comes to be intolerant of others discussing the same matter.  She hates that white people talk down to students at Naxos, yet she wishes to be a part of their society, as evidenced when she envies the woman at the bar.  Furthermore, when she goes to Denmark to visit her relatives, she realizes that she does not want to be seen as different in a good way because of her race, either, feeling as if she is a work of art or a toy on display for all of her white relatives and their friends.  Helen ultimately shows the many, conflicting, trapping, depressing realities of race dynamics within an individual- and that these don't necessarily correspond directly to "am I equal," or "am I not,"  indeed, for Helen, her race becomes a source of identity that is undefinable, and therefore painful.   For her, the life of a black or mulatto person cannot mean simply being the same as whites, nor can it mean wanting the same rights but hating whites and remaining completely isolated from them, nor can it mean being equal in rights but treated as an exotic, nor can it mean blending in exactly and losing all that is special to one's self and one's race.  Helen has not yet solved her own identity conflicts, and really, what person, no matter what their background, ever completely "finds themselves?"  However she does show the reader the many sources people blamed, and the many nuances of navigating a world where people don't know how to identify you, and neither do you.