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

Determinism in Nella Larsens Quicksand During the Harlem Renaissance, creationy 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 encloseled by his primitive animal instincts and a sociological determinism, whereby the unclouded are destroyed and the strong survive in a domain of struggle and chance. Helga Crane, Larsens protagonist in Quicksand, illustrates the elements of both biological and sociological determinism in her unfitness to curtail her natural animal instinct to hightail it 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 difference a place that has grown into a machine (4). Although the conforming nature of the institution contributes to Helgas desire to leave, she is also stirred with an beat desire for action of some sort (4). Instead of staying in Naxos and trash a battle once against the institutes conservative attitudes, Helga chooses to flee an harsh 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 care a person who had been for months fighting the devil and then unexpectedly had off 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 resist it.In New York, Helga is also consumed by the animal instinct of flight. When Dr. Anderson calls on her after 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 on 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 adjoining 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 put up to the same place she started from. It is obvious that Helga Crane will never in truth be able t o fit in in any society.It is spare 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 case of Helga proves that the Quicksand is not only representative of the Harlem Renaissance, but also of the naturalistic movement. hold CitedLarsen, Nella. Quicksand and Passing. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Brunswick Rutgers UP, 1986.