Quicksand - A Heronie's Journey Through Fashion

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It's easy to consider Nella Larsen's Quicksand as being mostly concerned with race, especially since it's a work from the famous Harlem Renaissance. Undoubtedly, race does play a central role in the novel—through Helga Crane's experiences, Larsen explores intersection of race and class as well as the idea that race isn't enough to fully define or group every individual. However, reading Quicksand as being exclusively about race risks overlooking another thing which makes the narrative unique: Helga Crane's experience as a woman. 

Properly analyzing everything we've read so far is obviously too large a task for just one blog post, so I've decided to delve into a detail that I found to be especially interesting. From what I've noticed so far, fashion seems to be tied interrelated with the stages of her heroine's journey. To be more specific, I'll be pairing the subtle shifts in Helga Crane's fashion with a few specific stages in Maureen Murdock's version of the heroine's journey, before analyzing how these correlations might influence our perception of Helga's development.

Separation From the Feminine:

The first stage in Murdock's 10-step program, "Separation From the Feminine" indicates a heroine's initial distance from the norms of femininity prescribed by their environment. In Helga's case, this disparity is represented by the clear difference between her and the other women at Naxos, an elite African American school similar to the well-known Tuskegee Institute. 

Within the high society Helga finds herself in, women aim to appear "proper" and "ladylike," wearing prim clothing and holding themselves to high standards of etiquette. Helga is shown to be at odds with this sentiment, expressing her contempt for "drab colors" like navy blue and black, instead advocating for bright colors on page 16. In this way, Helga distances herself from Naxos's ideas of femininity by critiquing the clothing.

The Descent/Reconnection With the Feminine: 

During her time in New York, Helga begins to question the new lifestyle she's been living. She begins to feel sour towards the loud, colorful culture that Harlem has to offer as she reconnects with the values of "properness" she once upheld at Naxos. I think Helga's transition back to femininity is quite plainly symbolized on page 52, when Helga picks a dress to wear at Anne Grey's party; "She would certainly wear the black net. For her it would be a symbol." Helga's choice to wear one of the colors she'd called "drab" just chapters earlier flags a shift back towards the ideology of Naxos and the concept of being "ladylike," which also lines up with her subsequent departure from Harlem. Not long after, in Denmark, Helga also finds herself now conforming to Danish standards of femininity as she's dressed up like a doll by her Aunt Katrina—marking an even starker shift back to femininity through her fashion sense.

I think the analysis of such fine details and symbolism in Quicksand are what can take our understanding of Helga's heroine's journey to the next level.  This example with Helga's clothing, for example, gives us some great signs to look out for when delving into the rest of her journey. By identifying the transformations in Helga's outward appearance, we can understand her internal changes as well.

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