Determinism in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand Essay -- Nella Larsen Quicksan

Determinism in Nella Larsens Quicksand During the Harlem Renaissance, musical compositiony literary works toilsome on celebrating African American heritage. However, many other writers also began concentrating on the darker theme of naturalism. Nella Larsens Quicksand illustrates many elements of this movement. These include a biological determinism, where man is conceived of as fudgeled by his primitive animal instincts and a sociological determinism, whereby the shoddy are destroyed and the strong survive in a knowledge domain of struggle and chance. Helga Crane, Larsens protagonist in Quicksand, illustrates the elements of both biological and sociological determinism in her softness to terminate her natural animal instinct to lam uncomfortable situations, and to comfortably conform in either of her opposing communities. Helga cannot suppress her desire to flee from uncomfortable situations in any city that she lives in. In Naxos, she convinces herself that she is departur e a place that has grown into a machine (4). Although the conformist nature of the institution contributes to Helgas desire to leave, she is also stirred with an shell desire for action of some sort (4). Instead of staying in Naxos and competitiveness a battle against the institutes conservative attitudes, Helga chooses to flee an forbidding reality. This exemplifies the fight or flight animal instinct that is said to control behavior in situations that become overwhelming. Instead of fighting, Helga time and time again chooses to leave what becomes unbearable to her. Once the decision is made to leave Naxos, Helga feels manage a person who had been for months fighting the devil and then unexpectedly had dark around and agreed to do his bidding (5). Helga knows deep down that leaving Naxos is wrong, but the instinct to flee is so strong that she is powerless to traverse it.In New York, Helga is also consumed by the animal instinct of flight. When Dr. Anderson calls on her aft er a chance meeting at a nightclub, Helga had no intention of running away, but something, some imp of contumacy, drove her from his presence, though she longed to stay (51). Once again, Helga succumbs to her overwhelming desire to leave an uncomfortable situation. later she realizes with a sense of helplessness and inevitabilitythat the weapon she had chosen had been a boomerang, for she herself had felt... ...at the advice she offers these women is looked upon with contempt. She begins to adapt to her life after Sary Jones advises her to make de bes of et but her efforts falter during her attached pregnancy (125). Instead of making the best of her life, Helga hands over this obligation to God which eventually leads to the same feeling of dissatisfaction and asphyxiation that she felt in Naxos, New York and Copenhagen (134). After all of her experiences, her inability to conform leads her right choke off to the same place she started from. It is obvious that Helga Crane will n ever truly be able to fit in in any society.It is probable that Nella Larsens Quicksand is concerned with the naturalistic element of determinism. Helga Crane illustrates both a biological and sociological determinism in her animal instinct for flight and her inability to conform in any of her environments. Larsens ability to integrate these themes into the parting of Helga proves that the Quicksand is not only representative of the Harlem Renaissance, but also of the naturalistic movement. stimulate CitedLarsen, Nella. Quicksand and Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Brunswick Rutgers UP, 1986.