Class and gender in the context of race in Toomer's Cane and Larsen's Quicksand

Résumé du document

A poem by Langston Hughes precedes the body of Larsen's text, 'Quicksand', which asks: 'My old man died in a fine big house/ My ma died in a shack/ I wonder where I'm going to die/ Being neither white nor black?'. This poem suggests the reading frame of the rest of the novel, what is the place of the mulatto in a racist US society? The child of a Danish girl and a West Indian black man, Helga's character is the product of a miscegenation taboo. Larsen's novel is the narrative of young Helga Crane from her initial job as a Naxos professor to her travel to Denmark, Harlem and the Deep South. As Helga moves from home to home, she finds that she is never fully comfortable in the long term, because she is uncomfortable with herself. Larsen employs the use of the concept of this tragic mulatta, and this material homelessness, in order to better explore the idea of both the ontological homelessness of the mulatto in a racially-polarized social politic. However , the idea of race often shadows another interesting theme in the novel that arises through the femininity of the protagonist. Larsen addresses not just the idea of identity ambivalence for the mulatto, but specifically the issue of race as it pertains to sexuality. This holds special significance in the conversation about racial upliftment of the American blacks; the creation of a new, racial identity of higher class blacks. Larsen uses color as a context to discuss both female sexuality and class.

Extraits

[...] This Orientalism calls upon the stereotype of the exotic but submissive Asian woman. She imagines that she can escape this perception of her difference by leaving to Denmark, but eventually learns that there, too, she is exoticised. The insistence of her family and Olsen on her adornment in extravagant colors and exotic outfits and their pride at her showcasing makes her feel "like nothing so much as some new and strange species of pet dog being proudly exhibited" 70). Every one of her moves—her decision to marry a preacher, a decision to leave Naxos, the decision to leave Denmark—are all provoked by some sort of sexual quandary or dilemma. [...]

[...] Both of the male figures die in the end, leaving Louisa alone and without a potential mate/family. The unfortunate conclusion of her story signifies the negativity of the oversexed black female stereotype. On the other hand, Toomer's Fern, who is a virgin with repressed sexuality also comes a lackluster end, fainting at the end of the text. Toomer thus argues against playing into either extreme—the stereotype OR the desperate escape from the stereotype, a similar argument to that of Larsen. [...]

[...] Class and gender in the context of race in Toomer's Cane and Larsen's Quicksand A poem by Langston Hughes precedes the body of Larsen's text, “Quicksand“, which asks: old man died in a fine big house/ My ma died in a shack/ I wonder where I'm going to die/ Being neither white nor black?” (Larsen 1). This poem suggests the reading frame for the rest of the novel—what is the place of the mulatto in a racist U.S society? The child of a Danish girl and a West Indian black man, Helga's character is the product of a miscegenation taboo. [...]

[...] Toomer and Larsen both use the metaphor of the ‘home' in the domestic sense to explain the displacement of the mulatto. Both Toomer and Larsen portray the American mulatto figure as being on the fringe of both black and white society in order to discuss the formation of a new Negro class system. They possess an ontological homelessness that both Larsen and Toomer illustrate in their works. Helga, at the beginning of the novel, is a teacher at Naxos. However, soon after the narrative begins, she moves to Chicago, Harlem, Denmark and then back to Harlem. [...]

[...] While there methods of producing the argument within the narrative counter eachothers, both are used to the same end. The mention of the characters of Mrs. Pribby and Ms. MacGooden engenders a conversation about class and sexuality within both texts. Helga muses on the fact that MacGooden rationalizes her lack of husband, a seeming rejection of the Victorian norm for society, by explaining that “There [are] things in the matrimonial state too repulsive for a lady of delicate and sensitive nature to submit (Larsen 12). [...]