Nella Larsen’s Quicksand – A Slightly Different Outline of Crane’s Heroine’s Journey

 Nella Larsen’s Quicksand – A Slightly Different Outline of Crane’s Heroine’s Journey



Nella Larson’s Quicksand is a story about a biracial woman named Helga Crane who struggles to find a place of belonging in early 20th century America. Her Black father was absent for most of her life and her mother early in Helga’s life. Crane is forced to live with her mom’s side of the family, specifically her uncle, who sees her as an economic opportunity rather than his niece. The others ostracize Crane. By the beginning of this book, the reader can easily see Crane’s narrative as a perfect match for Shmidt’s Heroine’s Journey. This blog will only view the first few parts of Crane’s journey due to limited space. In this blog, I will argue for an alternative Heroine’s Journey narrative than mentioned in class. The outline of Crane’s heroine’s journey is as follows: the “Illusion of the Perfect World” starting before the book’s introduction and “The Betrayal or Realisation” at the beginning. My model “Illusion of the Perfect World” lasted throughout the beginning of the story and the “Betrayal or Realisation” at the time when she realized that she has no home in Chicago.

The Shmidt’s diagram shows that the “Illusion of the Perfect World” does not necessarily have to be a time where the main character lives a frivolous, bliss, lifestyle. The diagram states that the Illusion of the Perfect World can also signify a time when the heroine feels trapped in her current situation due to the accepted practices and beliefs in her society. In Cinderella, the “Illusion of the Perfect World” was when was mistreated by her step mother. In the Hunger Games, the story starts out with the heroine Katiness Everdeen living a hard life under an extremely oppressive regime. While the name of the phase may be misleading, it goes to show how the “Illusion of the Perfect World” represents the beginning of the story where everyone accepts the seemingly inevitable status quo of their society, and the main character does not necessarily have to be happy. That is why I place the beginning of the Quicksand book as an “Illusion of the Perfect World”, because there was a seemingly inevitable status quo, which was Black inferiority. The school Naxos itself was built to keep African Americans from challenging the Jim Crow South, and it was designed to keep Blacks to do industrial work, just like the White supremacist wanted them to do. In this society, everyone has accepted and even been happy with this way of life which is why it is still called “Illusion of the Perfect World.”

In this alternate map of Crane’s heroine’s journey, the “Betrayal and Realization” begins during Helga’s encounter with her aunt and continues throughout her venture in Chicago, because it best represents the phase where the heroine experiences radical change from her original environment in the book’s narrative. Here Helga Crane’s hope for a home outside of Naxos disappears when her uncle’s new wife rejects her as her niece. She realizes that at that moment she has no place to go in Chicago where she could belong and live safely. Chicago and its people further betray her with her repeated failed job application, forcing her to a constant search of money and stability. In Naxos, she had a job that put a roof over her head and put food on the table and in Harlem, she was generously given an opportunity to live a lavish life with a woman named Anne Grey until she could get permanently settled. But nowhere else had Helga experience rejection and betrayal than in Chicago.

Overall, the “Illusion of the Perfect World” does not only represent a time when the heroine has high hopes or dreams, or when the main character is happy. It represents a time when the society that the character lives in defines what they deem as “perfect world” and the heroine accepts that whether they are happy or not. Helga Crane accepted Naxos’ philosophy of Black subordination of Whites for years before finally deciding to leave for Chicago. Only then, did she experience betrayal by many Chicagoans, including her uncle through her aunt.

Comments

  1. BenMarch 31, 2025 at 7:58 PM

    Nice post Milky! I wonder how many phases of the novel could be categorized as "Illusion of the Perfect World," Helga seems to be content with her surroundings only to backtrack and leave at least a dozen times throughout the novel. I found Helga's distaste for Naxos rather hypocritical given her own reservations about black art as expressed in her and her friend's dislike of gospel spirituals. Keep up the good work!

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