Quicksand

I never managed to view Quicksand as a perfect-circle heroine’s journey. Instead, it seems that Helga Crane flits to and fro different settings, only to go through the same little cycles—perhaps mini heroine’s journeys—in each new environment. I viewed Siddhartha similarly, only his mini-journeys coalesced into one larger journey of real development and finality. Helga’s experiences only repeat, recycle. Constant throughout her struggles is Helga’s constant objectification as a beautiful mixed-race woman. Whether she is in Harlem or Copenhagen, Helga never manages to be truly understood. Instead, she’s exoticized and sexualized, either by herself or by others around her. Helga hid her white half to the black community in Harlem Only Dr. Robert Anderson knew, from old Naxos ties, and he was inexplicably, helplessly attracted to her. Yet in Copenhagen, Helga’s blackness was flaunted like she was some exotic bird. Axel Olson was similarly fascinated by her. Neither man knew her personality or her heart, but both were drawn to her like moths to a flame by some unique trait of Helga’s—I feel it had something to do with her race, not just her beauty. Regardless, however, Helga loves the attention. Her objectification and relationships with men and society serve as sources for validation and happiness through many cycles of Helga’s journey. I believe her sexualization represents the stage illusion of the perfect world, and it’s especially clear when she is in Copenhagen.  

The illusion of the perfect world is a stage characterized by naivety. Nothing bad can happen to her; men will take care of her; she’s one of the boys and will do everything right; yet she’s depressed by can’t change anything. These stages of grief certainly each appear, as Helga is a haughty yet insecure young woman. She is insecure about her identity and her belongingness, having never truly found who she was. Beautiful woman, party animal, Danish elite, religious leader—she never fit in any such role. Throughout Quicksand, she chases the ‘perfect life.’ She puts on new roles in life like clothes, discarding each when they become a little cloying or dull. In leaving Naxos to be more socially just, in leaving Harlem to live like the rich elite, in marrying Reverend Green to feel some purpose and as if she is a moral woman. Planning to fit in the Harlem elite, planning to get married rich and artistic, planning to fit the perfect pastor’s wife role—Helga’s plans only ever satisfy the outward image she builds of herself, not the inner girl that had always been alone. Helga also carries with her a useless armor of cold hard pride, one that falls apart before her Uncle Peter’s wife’s humiliation or Dr. Anderson (yet is the very thing that kept her from him). Her pride is another sign of the weakness she protects within. These traits are important for setting up Helga’s heroine’s journey. Her dissatisfaction rooted in deep insecurity and loneliness; a near-total lack of identity means Helga’s perfect world is always an illusion.

Helga doesn’t fit in in Copenhagen. However, not fitting in means standing out in the most vibrant, beautiful way possible. Nothing bad can happen to Helga in Copenhagen; she’s found an idyllic European paradise far away from her bitterly-detested race problem. Men certainly try to take care of her; she even tastes the opportunity for marriage. Those dreams she once yearned for—wealth, status, high-class marriage, don’t just dangle before Helga but fall right into her lap. Helga does everything right. The Dahls coo over her and she’s a perfect ornament at every tea party because of the color of her skin, the curl of her hair. She’s coached into enjoying wealthy time-passers like art or theatre. At the center of her sudden successes is her objectification. Helga is paraded around like “some new and strange species of pet dog being proudly exhibited.” Her entire appearance is enegienered to make the most “voluptuous impression.” Other Danish girls are dressed more sensibly, yet we can see the European misconceptions about Black women being sensual and inherently seductive in how the Dahls display Helga, often in a dress that isn’t “much more than a skirt.” The Dahls and Danish socialites assume that Helga is on the inside the same barely-dressed, overly-bejeweled thing that they turned her into. And to Axel Olsen, Helga is “some disgusting sensual creature with her features.” Through his vile monologue and his overtly sensual portrait of her, we see that she is some sexual object Olsen craves. Muse, wife, whatever. Only euphemisms for the seductive toy Olsen sees her as. There are plenty of other beautiful Danish girls, but as always Helga’s lure is her exotic status as a ‘mulatto.’ 

The pampering and primping of the Dahls is a new, exciting journey for Helga—never has her race been something white society admires; never has her difference been emphasized instead of softened. She knew she was being objectified, but she ignored her inhibitions; the validation that accompanied the whole parade was certainly bountiful. It fed right into her vain insecurity and absolute need for new, ego-boosting experiences. It’s not as if she ever loves the Dahls or Olsen anyone else as if she had any deep and real reason to feel joy. She only used each new experience to create a false sense of security by satisfying her ego. While Helga feeds her moral superiority with Reverend Green, for example, she lets her vanity balloon in Copenhagen. Her empty pride is why her satisfaction in Copenhagen and anywhere else is only an illusion of the perfect world. Loneliness and insecurity can only be sated by outside validation for so long. Helga’s status in Copenhagen is a total 180 from who she was and what she was experiencing in Harlem. I can see why she’s momentarily so entertained, so gleeful once she abandons her initial discomfort with the way she is objectified. But an illusion is always only ever an illusion, and Helga runs from Copenhagen as soon as the luster of her perfect world fades to seek joy in another costume, in another life. It's fitting that she slips into the modest, righteous role of a pastor's wife right after being basically pimped out for clout by the Dahls in skimpy dresses. And while Quicksand ends with her life as Mrs. Green, I'm not very curious what would happen next in Helga's journey because I know she still won't find her happy ending.