Is The Difference Between Quicksand And The Autobiography Of An Ex-Colored Man

In both passages, Quicksand and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, the main characters surroundings are used in order to distract them or stray them away from their fears/problems. This can be seen in The Autobiography of... as the main character describes his trip to Paris and how it distracts him from the fact that his name was involved with a murder. In Quicksand, there are multiple instances where the reader can assume that the main character holds fear or some type of character trait that holds her back from what she attempts to do during the time, but something always comes around that distracts her from her fear. For example, the reader can assume she left her home, when the story starts off as "Helga feels no regrets as the cliff-like

Man things distract him from the murder, such as Icebergs (paragraph 1, lines 5-8), the idea of bears (paragraph 1, line 8), whales, and the train that takes him to Paris. Throughout the story he slowly starts to forget about the topic of the murder which is shown by the amount of times it is brought up in the story. At the start, he speaks about the murder more than anything and as the story progressed, the main character spoke about the situation less and less, until he gets to a point where he does not speak about it at all. The surrounding around the main character distracts him from the bad things associated with his name in New York and he is able to live peacefully and

She is constantly bringing up her childhood and her shyness which gives us information that there is a problem, but we don't know what it is. The author also starts the story off with "Helga Crane felt no regret as the cliff-like towers faded" and she seems very to herself. Though she shows moments of her getting out of her comfort zone and she is distracted by things like a large crowd of people (paragraph 8), her aunt (paragraph 10). She did bring up her aunts husband which could also potentially be a problem stating "A deep pang of misgiving nauseated her at the thought of her aunt's husband, acquired since Helga's childhood visit. Painfully, vividly, she remembered the frightened anger of Uncle Peter's new wife, and looking back at her precipitate departure from America, she was amazed at her own stupidity. She had not even considered the remote possibility that her aunt's husband might be like Mrs. Nilssen. For the first time in nine days she wished herself back in New York, in America." She was also distracted by the fact that she might be in love with a doctor but she quickly dismisses that idea with more negative thoughts (With the recollection of that previous flight and subsequent half-questioning a dim disturbing notion came to her. She wasn't, she couldn't be, in love with the man. It was a thought too humiliating, and so quickly dismissed.