Quicksand: Relationship Between Racism and Sexuality in the Early 20th Century (Essay Sample)

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Problematic Relationship between Sexuality and Race in the Early Twentieth Century as Presented in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand.
Introduction
Nella Larsen’s Quicksand examines modern ways of portraying African American female identity through Helga's quest to discover her place in society. Helga aims to articulate her sexuality without losing control by victimization, objectification, or sexual suppression. The novel also reveals the dichotomous representations of African American females in literature by Helga's pursuit for sexual emancipation. In the middle of Harlem's great social and cultural experiment in the 1920s and 1930s, interlocking structures of racism and misogyny had existed since America's colonial days. These overlapping constructs, as will be discussed, render Larsen's characters (Helga) emotional. Therefore, this essay investigates textual depictions of race and sexuality and how they relate to African American female identity perceptions common in Harlem Renaissance literature.
Problems between Sexuality and Race
In Quicksand, historical representations of African American women are utilized to draw on opposing campaigns during the Harlem Renaissance. The novel contests the new terms of African American women created and influenced by the initial frameworks of Afro-female identity in the US. According to Rennie Simon, ‘’the development of erotic self of the African women originates from slavery (Musisi 311). During this period, a black woman was considered a working tool and an object for sexual pleasure.” Since they lacked liberty, enslaved women were deprived of their dignity and identity. Another critic, Angela Davis, filed how black females were handled the same as men during work:
When it came to jobs, resilience and efficiency under the pressure of being beaten surpassed sex factors…when it was advantageous to misuse them as if males were treated with no consideration of gender, but during exploitation, disciplined, and repressed in a manner suited for women. They were confined into their predominant feminine positions (Davis 33).
Furthermore, the history of rape, which “instigated the brutal economic abuse of female slaves,” utterly robbed African American women of their sexuality