Helga Crane struggles with numerous forces, which include class and racial stereotypes, social expectations, and emotional baggage. The following article exploits her biggest struggle and the circumstances that would have made her more successful in pursuing happiness. Helga Crane’s biggest obstacle is her emotional baggage (Larsen). Her lack of self-awareness, appreciation, integrity and gratifications for herself, and her life results from emotional baggage. Helga’s constant pursuit of leisure, attention, and beautiful surrounding, is as a result of her emotional struggles. The recognition of her self-worth would make the other social ills, such as, class and racial stereotypes and social expectations become irrelevant, as she would recognise herself, and what she is worth (Larsen). Helga Crane desires to strive for inner happiness; rather than, the material wealth of the society would have made her happier. Her constant pursuit for happiness in the external society; rather than, the quest for happiness inwardly, caused her to seek gratification and happiness from material wealth and the chase from men (Larsen). The need for her to use her body and beauty to lure wealthy and affluent men reflects on her lack of gratification and appreciation for what she has and this would make her seek for status and class; rather than internal happiness. Helga constant search for leisure, beautiful surrounding, and attention, would have been replaced with a search for meaningful relationships, innate happiness, and the internal self-awareness and peace (Larsen). Helga should pursue value systems, …show more content…
If Helga pursuits inner happiness and meaningful relationships; rather than, external happiness, she would have been more successful in her pursuit of happiness. Works Cited Larsen, Nella. "Quicksand." Baym, Nina and Robert S Levine. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2012.