Let’s keep our great blogging going! Remember that all #3s should have finished blogging a 300-word reading response by 6:00pm today, and that everyone else should reply with a 150-word response by Monday morning at 9:00am.
As we near the end of the novel, start thinking about where see the novel ending, and what evidence you have to support your view. Use quotations to support your views!
Anna_Speakz
callmekaiyo
cmontauban
cmunoz90
cornellepearson
Jibril Bilal
DannyK
hoyinse5mavis
isimora
jas1225
jdimanche
Jody R. Rosen
kathriced
mireya225c
mmahmed21
nancygc1
saidab5
smorgan
sherenei
tara829
tsantos5
tthompson354
yennyr2
ymillan
Writing Women 
hmm… I do not see anyone poses, so I think I just make a plain comment here…
By almost the end of the story, it’s getting more interesting to see how Helga Crane gradually realizes where she belongs to after she travels from culture to culture. She doesn’t like the fact that colored people is powerless and shameful. She is happy when she suddenly becomes rich and her social status rises in Denmark, however, she feels something is missed. For a long period, she has thought that she likes materials more than anything. But this time, she only becomes prettier because the jewelries, the dresses and makeups that her put on upon her. Helga admits that “suits” her a lot, but, it’s not the real Helga Crane; not her style. She doesn’t like the picture Olsen paints for her and refuses his proposal because he is not proposal to the real Helga. In Denmark, Helga loses her origin as a colored woman. She may not like the existence of inequality among the white community in America but, nevertheless, she also dislikes the second identity which is only wrapped up by materials. That’s she travels back to Harlem, not just because Dr. Anderson but also, she knows that is where she from and where she truly belongs to.
Thank you, Kyle, for posting this great comment. You touch on some of the most important aspects of Quicksand, including the role of material possessions in Helga’s life. We discussed the term material culture briefly in class. Having read this much of the novel, what do you think about these material things–clothing, jewelry–as representative of Helga Crane?
We should look at the proposal scenes in class, since so much of what goes on in both the first implied proposal and the second explicit one calls our attention to the struggles and conflicts Helga faces both in the world and in her own mind. Let’s all be ready to talk about those passages.
I totally agree with you on your comment^^. Helga did lose herself once she went to Denmark. She became a whole new person wearing fancy clothes and expensive jewelry. White men are looking to Helga now and she feels important. She is quite confused still with who she is and what she wants but that doesn’t matter now because, she has many men who are trying to “woo” her. She admits that her style has switched up a lot because she doesnt recognize the new person. In fact she calls the person the new Helga Crane, and with this new person comes new complexes within her. She now is trying to reason with herself because in Denmark she completely loses who she actually is. She returns to Harlem to Anne who is marrying Dr. Anderson the person she is in love with. She is unhappy again and is puzzled but i think its because Anne and Dr. Anderson marrying will mean she will never get the chance she longs for.
Tiffany’s comment that “White men are looking to Helga now and she feels important” raises and interesting question. Is Helga’s performance or self-display in Denmark the same as Audrey Denney’s in New York? Let’s think about race and sexuality in both contexts.
Helga’s materialistic persona has deepen when she arrived to Denmark into the Dahl’s family. Here she is more spoiled with all the attention she gets due to her exotic beauty, the dresses and jewelry as ornaments that she wears. She haven’t change a bit since she moved from Naxos, back then she also loved owning beautiful objects (Chinese rags, colorful dresses, silky purse, etc) which made her feel superior to anyone, especially the Negroes. Her sense for materialistic objects have only heightened, she had all the attention she wanted and she had a powerful White man proposed to her. However, she realizes that her life misses something. Perhaps she felt that she had lost Dr. Anderson who she thinks she is in love with and who also humiliates her saying that their passionate kiss was a product of the alcohol effect. I think that this will drive any women mad!..and made foolish decisions like the ones she makes later on, cheating herself into loving someone different from others in body and soul like Reverend Green. She uses her body as a seduction tool to get through Reverend’s mind and perhaps making him fall for her. Maybe she is no different than the Dahls who wanted her to marry Axel to gain a higher position in society. Maybe she wants the same thing, she plans to marry God and man at the same time through Reverend Green and this will create a facade and an impact in everyone else.
I think that she still has a long journey to go to discover her true self since she is never satisfied with what she has. Helga’s conflicted attitude and her hypocrisy bothers me. Since, back in Naxos, she was deeply angered by the racism towards Negroes in America yet she refuses Axel’s proposal not only because he called her a prostitute but primordially because he is White. She also feels superior to other Negroes when she goes back to Naxos especially her ex fiancee James. It appears that she dislikes Negroes when she sees some of them dancing and to her they represent the stereotypical Negro in America. Moreover, she also adopts different identities wherever she travels to, which clearly shows that she doesn’t know who she is anymore. I think that she is very trapped in herself, hiding under fine high class life and trying too hard to know who she is. Hopefully, towards the end of the reading she does.
I agree with Kyle’s point of view that Helga had always thought materials thing will bring her happiness and now she is roughly discovering something different. Prof. Rosen, i strongly think that material things does represents her. She had always care about herself and criticized what others did, didn’t do, wore or didn’t wore. I think this novel represents the society in where we are living. Is very materialistic and people are becoming more narcissistic (people caring about their body image where health is not the primary reason but becoming the next top model is…people want to wear what is the latest fashion, brands, etc….)
Prof. Rosen, in my opinion Audrey Denney knows who she is and feels comfortable engaging in activities around mixing with white and black people. In the other hand, Helga is conflicted with herself, she doesn’t know where she belongs…is it black or white? she is trying to please everyone (the Dhals: by dressing up and showing around) except herself (which is more important.) She is displaying her body and she feels very important not only because he is a White man, he is a white man with influence and she refused him (it heightens her ego by doing this.)
I feel Helga’s ego over powers her mind and the way she thinks. Thus making her lost within her own self. At times i understand her reasoning for the way she views blacks and white in society but i feel she is more arrogant than reasonable. Even being the wife of a pastor i do not quite think that helped Helga find who she was, rather it just put her mind at peace and gave her some contentment with society and being happy. Still i am confused as to what exactly happened once helga left the gathering where she caught the holy ghost. Was it the feeling of not knowing what had such a grasp on her emotions which led her to expose tears of joy and sadness which led her finally feel the need to marry? Was it the pastor walking her home that really touched her ?
“Quicksand” by Nella Larsen CH 15-21
I agree with Kyle that Helga was very materialistic but I feel it was her own coping mechanism aiding her in feeling beautiful, special and loved. Being mulatto was a double edged knife. If she acted too white it was frowned upon as was acting too black. Her choices were to “toe the line” or choose a side. Helga found toeing the line difficult and being “white” only worked in Denmark and being “black” only worked in New York. I agree with tthompson 354 that Helga did have a sort of epiphany in Denmark but it was short lived when she realized that she lost the person she really was – mulatto. Mireya225 did make an interesting point when she said that Helga planned to “marry God and man.” Perhaps Helga found that the only one who viewed her with both eyes was God. In the mission no one viewed her as either black or white but just as an individual and she found peace Reverend Green was only the icing on the cake at the time.
I agree with Kaiyo’s and Thompson’s point of views that Helga became another person after she went to Denmark. I think that she is the only person who makes herself different from the others; she is the person who discriminates herself. She viewed herself differently after she wore beautiful clothes and put make-up on. She felt happy because even white men looked at her. But she was not happy actually because she couldn’t recognize herself. She mentioned that she was “New Helga Crane.” I feel bad for her that at the end, her friend, Anne married with Dr. Anderson who she loved before.
I think that no matter where Helga goes she finds that there’s something wrong. She is unhappy person who is never satisfied wherever she goes. So we see that moving to a different place from Naxos to Denmark in is not the solution. It’s like she is her own problem and doesn’t seem to realize it, she wants to believe that it is things around her that are bothering her but she never see’s the reality of her own issue. We see through this that material possessions does not make anyone happy, and a person with a mindset to always get MORE will never be satisfied and/or never find things to be enough. That type of attitude is not healthy at all. I agree only God understands people 100% and sees their need, their condition and has the solution. I don’t know in what way Helga meant about marrying God, people always seem to misinterpret that or twist it around. But definitely if she gets closer to God she will find satisfaction, and I’m speaking from experience here people