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Social Displacement In Quicksand

Decent Essays

In Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, a biracial woman by the name of Helga Crane faces a number of trials and tribulations that challenge her social and cultural identity. Throughout the novel, Helga is challenged with socially, culturally, and sexually misplaced while living among social elites and the bourgeois, which ironically leads her to a place of isolation. Her dissatisfaction with her life, onset by her sense of displacement, causes her to take flight in many situations she faces. Despite the fact that all three challenges prove to be a combined force in Helga’s downfall, it is reasonable to conclude that her social displacement provides the most detrimental impact to the success of her character in the novel.
Despite the fact that Helga is

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