This incapability will be analyzed establishing the difference between “the Self and the Other”, which was recognized by authors such as Simone de Beauvoir. Another important point treated in the text is Helga Crane’s incapability to find her true self throughout the novel that is, the difficulties that she finds when trying not to feel alienated from society. In other words, Quicksand reflects how black women were discriminated because of their double condition as non-white and women. In addition, the fact that the protagonist of the novel is a mulatto also affects the construction of her identity for this reason, the manner in which Nella Larsen constructs the main character’s femininity, together with the fact that many black and white men often judge and devaluate Helga Crane, will be explored. Quicksand is a good example to see how the white man has discriminated, segregated and represented African Americans negatively because of their race and ethnicity, influencing in their identity. Nella Larsen herself was a mulatto, like the protagonist of the novel, and she experienced racial discrimination in real life, reflecting it in her writing. To do so, the main character of Nella Larsen’s novel Quicksand, Helga Crane, will be analyzed. The objective of this study is to deal with the different ways in which the white man has shaped the construction of African Americans’ self identity, especially during the period of the Harlem Renaissance.
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