Quicksand

Geographical location is used in Quicksand in order to correlate to Helga’s mental state. Naxos, the southern boarding school for Negro children, serves to represent the hypocrisy and racial oppression that Helga despises. While the school allegedly espouses liberal ideals as to black education, she is appalled at its inherent endorsement of racism, feeling that it was an “exemplification of the white man’s magnanimity” (4). The atmosphere is stifling to her, as is her engagement to the conformist James Vayle, the product of a black family “of consequence” (8) that fails to accept the rootless Helga Crane.

Copenhagen, on the other hand, is the essence of freedom for Helga. She is, to be sure, a racial curiosity to its citizens; nonetheless, she is “unique” (91) there, rather than an object of embarrassment to her family. The material goods she has always coveted are provided by her generous aunt and uncle, and she is pursued by a number of successful, attractive men. Her job is merely to enhance the social ranking of the family and to wear the beautiful, colorful clothing bought for her, like “a peacock” (73). The eminent portrait painter Axel Olsen proposes marriage to her in Copenhagen.