Page references are to Nella Larsen, Quicksand and Passing, Ed. Deborah D. McDowell (New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1986).  Prepared by Kem Roper, Andi Lolos, and LaShawn Simington)

Chapters 1-4 Helga finds dissatisfaction with Naxos

Helga arrives in the small town of Naxos to assist in the education of Negro children. At first she was full of many positive ideas and suggestions as how to improve Negro education. Now she feels unwelcome and out of place, often finding herself alone and isolated (5).

"The great community, she thought, was no longer a school. It had grown into a machine. It was now a show place in the black belt, exemplification of the white man's magnanimity, refutation of the black man's inefficiency. Life had died out of it" (4).

Helga leaves the town of Naxos behind and boards a train to Chicago. Yet she soon discovers that this city is not her home, and, in fact, she has no place that she can really call home.

"Helga Crane, who had been born in this dirty, mad, hurrying city had no home here. She had not even any friends here" (27).

Helga relocates to Harlem where she becomes part of the Black middle-class community. However, her initial happiness and feeling of belonging in Harlem fades into feelings of shame and fear.

"It was as if she were shut up, boxed up, with hundreds of her race, closed up with that something in the racial character which had always been, to her, inexplicable, alien. Why [. . .] should she be yoked to these despised black folk?" (54-55)

Helga relocates to Denmark to live with her white relatives. There she is received as an exotic treasure. The people view her as an object to be observed from afar, with awe and wonder. In time, though, the novelty wears off and Helga longs again for life in Harlem.

"So life went on [. . . .] And that nagging aching for America increased. Augmented by the uncomfortableness of Aunt Katrina's and Uncle Poul's disappointment with her, that tormenting nostalgia grew to an unbearable weight" (92).

Helga returns to Harlem, though not intending to stay. At a party given by the Tavenor family, Dr. Anderson (now husband of Anne) kisses her and she is surprised by the passion it stirs within her. Then later, Helga’s feelings are destroyed by Dr. Anderson’s formal apology and admission that he was a "fool" to have kissed her.

"She had ruined everything [. . .] because she had been so silly as to close her eyes to all indication that pointed to the fact that no matter what the intensity of his feelings or desires might be, he was not the sort of man who would for any reason give up one particle of his own good opinion of himself. Not even for her. Not even though he knew that she had wanted so terribly something special from him" (108).

After being rejected by Dr. Anderson, Helga sinks to an all time low. Stumbling into a revival service one night, she meets and (quickly) marries Rev. Green, thinking that God’s providence has led her, at last, to permanent happiness. After delivering three children in the span of 20 months, Helga realizes that she has wasted her life away.

"She had ruined her life, made it impossible ever again to do the things that she wanted, have the things that she loved, mingle with the people she liked. She had [. . .] been a fool" (133)