Summary Of Closure Of Quicksand By Nella Larsen

The Decline of Helga Crane- Exploring Nella Larsen’s Closure of Quicksand.

Nella Larsen’s Quicksand follows the story of a ‘tragic mulatta’, Helga Crane. Helga Crane embarks on an exhaustive physical and psychological journey throughout the text, Quicksand. As the text concludes the reader yearns for closure. However, Quicksand’s ending ultimately results in the metaphorical suffocation of Helga Crane, leaving the reader disappointed and unfulfilled. The melancholy, unsatisfied feelings evoked from Quicksand’s closure strongly suit the text as a whole and reflect Helga’s life experiences as a misfit.

The opening statements of Quicksand paint a dull and depressing picture of Helga Crane, a school teacher whose dreams of positively impacting

***HE’S ABOUT AS ORDAINED AS TRENEATA*** In a sense, Reverend Pleasant Green is the first person that makes Helga feel accepted. Helga seduces the Reverend and eventually marries him. At first, the idea of marriage to the Reverend entices Helga, hoping that a new life in the south will be a fresh start and will make her happy. It is soon discovered that the reasons for Helga’s unhappiness are much deeper than being single. At first, Helga “did not hate him, the town, or the people” (Larsen 622) but soon after Helga remains unfulfilled. Helga is once again cast to the roll of local misfit. This time, she is married to a black preacher but it is clear that this role is not suited to Helga. She is outcast by her lack of previous experience with religion and does not know how to behave as a pastor’s wife. Her menial skills cause her to once again return to a place where she feels

Instead of celebrating the joy of life that she has created, she claims that “the children used her up” (Larsen 625). Helga progresses on her journey as a character whom sadness comes much more naturally to than the happiness of even monumental life events. Helga slips further into tragedy, losing her sense of passion, desire and will to survive. Reverend Green begins to notice how “his children [are] unwashed, and his wife [is] untidy” (Larsen 625), which results in his ever-fading presence. As Helga’s husband become more and more infrequently home she realizes that life as a house wife and mother is not the fulfillment she hoped it to be. Helga must “bring herself back to the present with conscious effort” (Lackey 105) in order participate in even the smallest of daily tasks. Unfortunately, motherhood becomes just another aspect of Helga’s life that she does not fit in