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Department of Humanities Advanced Level English EN Supervisor: Piia Posti 15 hp Examiner: Maria Olaussen June 4, 2008
” A Plea for Color ”
Color as a Path to Freedom
in Nella Larsen’s Novel Quicksand
Julia Nordquist
Abstract
Author: Julia Nordquist Title: “ A Plea for Color ”: Color as a Path to Freedom in Nella Larsen’s Novel Quicksand Växjö University, June 2008 Supervisor: Piia Posti Examiner: Maria Olaussen
The aim of the study is to investigate how double-consciousness operates through contrastive color imagery in Nella Larsen’s novel Quicksand. A focal point of the analysis is to show how Larsen thematizes the ability to benefit from bright colors and how color choice determines the quality and level of freedom in life. Together with W. E. B. Du Bois’s theory of double-consciousness, a few other literary works by writers of the Harlem Renaissance have been considered in order to further support my arguments. I link these other writers’ perspectives to Quicksand and to the novel’s theme of color as a path to freedom. In Quicksand , a broader path of colors, more bright than dull, leads to freedom, as is made evident through the novel’s connection of bright colors with Harlem’s freedom of expression. Furthermore, a narrow path of colors is contrastively figured as the course towards tragedy, which is clearly seen in the novel through the example of the protagonist Helga’s “sinking” due to an absence of color.
Keywords Color imagery, double-consciousness, freedom, the Harlem Renaissance, Larsen, Quicksand
1. Introduction
The primary source of this essay is Nella Larsen’s novel Quicksand. The novel is included in an edition called The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen , originally titled An Intimation of Things Distant. The setting is the Harlem Renaissance (1918-1937), which is described by George Hutchinson as “the most influential single movement in African American literary history” (Hutchinson i). Emily Bernard says that during the Harlem Renaissance “Harlem, New York, was unique as a city that spoke to black hopes and dreams” (Bernard 31). In 1928, the same year in which Quicksand was first published, “Harlem alone claimed 200,000 black residents” (Bernard 32), which makes it a place of at least 200 000 dreams. These “black hopes and dreams” in Quicksand are represented by colors as a path to freedom but, as the main character Helga Crane experiences, dreams of freedom could be led astray during the process of searching for sense in a double-conscious identity.
1.1 Theoretical background The theory of my research is William E. B. Du Bois’ ideas of the double-consciousness. Du Bois used the double-consciousness to discuss the “complexity of African American life [which] requires more than one perspective” (Wells 120). The use of this theory is valid for my research due to the double-consciousness of African American life. What must also be mentioned is that the focus will be on Du Bois’ theory, and not “a mental disorder known in the nineteenth century as double consciousness” (Wells 120). Although, the consciousness refers to the mind and the way it works, the struggle that it brings into the life of blacks is not to be regarded as a mental disturbance in need of medication. Thus, I will throughout the essay refer to Du Bois’ view that refers to African American double-consciousness as a race problem. The double-consciousness refers to an identity that consists of two different kinds of awareness that according to Du Bois is “the contradiction of double aims” that is “absence of power” but still “it is not weakness” (qtd. in Kalaidjian 976). This means that the double- consciousness creates a struggle in one’s mind, due to the need of balancing society’s ideals so that harmony may be. It is a lack of belonging that could be seen as weakness, but still it is a unique power as it involves insight in other peoples’ perspectives. In addition, “contradiction[s] of double aims” may lead to interesting discussions, as each aim alone refers to a perspective of its own. This is supported by Bernard who describes
the Harlem Renaissance as “an era best characterized by its contradictions” where “every point of celebration [of blackness] was also a source of contention” (Bernard 28). A “contention” refers to a discussion in which there are differences in opinions. This kind of discussion with conflicting perspectives is not necessarily a bad thing, which is supported through Du Bois’ writing that African Americans are “gifted with a second-sight in this American world” (qtd. in Kalaidjian 975). Being able to fuse two different worldviews together raises possibilities of creating uniqueness in different aspects of life. Despite its “curse of ambivalence” (Kalaidjian 975), double-consciousness therefore becomes an asset in search for freedom. A double-conscious person, with contradicting white and black ancestry, might find it difficult to feel racial pride and achieve freedom due to this uncertainty of where one belongs. In order to achieve freedom one should turn to the colors of Harlem. Though, this path might be difficult to pursue and any misguidance might diminish dreams of freedom. If these dreams of freedom are diminished life could take on prison-like characteristics that resemble hopelessness. Du Bois states that making sense of double aims might involve “false means of salvation” (qtd. in Kalaidjian 976). The tragic ending of Helga Crane’s search for freedom through colors is a representative of this, due to the false hopes of brightness invoked by her marriage to Mr. Pleasant Green.
1.2 Method of analysis The method I will use in order to carry out my research is based on color imagery. Due to the double-consciousness it is difficult to know for certain which path of color one should choose, in order to achieve freedom. These choices are represented by the different comparisons of aspects of color which are part of Quicksand. The novel’s path to freedom will be researched through different aspects of color. These are divided under four subheadings where contradictions are of high interest as they show differences in perspectives. These contrasting views resemble the way contradictions exist in the double-conscious mind. The first area of my research looks into problems that face a person with a mixed heritage, due to two conscious sides that stand against each other. It deals with entrapment of pride and freedom due to denial of colors that already exist in nature. The struggle of a double identity is introduced by Langston Hughes’ expression of “[ b ] eing neither white nor black ”. The discussion continues with Du Bois’ view that the African American soul should not be bleached, and thus lose its uniqueness in white ideals. Furthermore, this section turns to the
worth the risks involved. What is more, I will look at how color and freedom become sites in which the double perspective of double-consciousness appears and is explored by Larsen. My thesis statement is that Quicksand shows a struggle caused by double- consciousness that may be solved through an ability to benefit from colors, and that the characters’ choice of colors will determine the quality and level of freedom they achieve in life.
2. The Harlem Renaissance
This section will provide some knowledge of the Harlem Renaissance, as this is the period of time that is the focus of my research.
2.1 Duration of the Renaissance Hutchinson says that this Renaissance in Harlem, New York, took place approximately between 1918-1937, “while recognizing that periodization is always artificial and approximate”. Furthermore, he states that when the First World War (1914-1918) ended, it “contributed to the Great Migration of blacks in the southern United States to northern cities and new opportunities for work and education”, which created a new popular culture of African American literature, and flourishing Blues and Jazz. This new movement would mark the beginning of the Renaissance (Hutchinson 7). Moreover, he links the end of the Renaissance to the death of James Weldon Johnson, “a key precursor, participant, and historian of the movement”. After his death in 1938, an archive of the Harlem Renaissance was put up at Yale. This collection of manuscripts from participants of the Renaissance was collected by Carl Van Vechten, which resulted in the James Weldon Memorial Collection, and which is described as “the most important archive of the movement”. A memorial is a remembrance of the past, which is partly the reason why Hutchinson argues that the Renaissance approximately lasted until the year of 1937 (Hutchinson 7).
2.2 Celebration of blackness Bernard poses the question: “Was the Harlem Renaissance an actual renaissance?” She concludes that two possible meanings of a “renaissance” are “rebirth” or “revival” (Bernard 28). This indicates that black culture experienced a second birth from which an African
American identity evolved. Furthermore, she explains how some historians and critics do not support this definition, as they “believe that what took place during the Harlem Renaissance years was not a rebirth, as such, but only another stage in the evolution of African and African American art”. This shows how opinions differ when it comes to defining this era as a renaissance or “only another stage” in an on-going process. Bernard’s perspective of the Renaissance is that it “was a moment when blackness was celebrated; but to be in vogue is to be in fashion, and fashions always die” (Bernard 28). To connect this to Hutchinson’s view, this “fashion” died around 1938, when the memorial of its participants was established at Yale.
2.3 Era of unique art Jeffrey C. Stewart discusses the way that Harlem brought the hundreds of thousands of African American immigrants, during the First World War, together in a common purpose. He elaborates this common purpose by quoting Locke’s claim that Harlem’s mixing of different African American personalities was “heightening [African American] race- consciousness” through its way of creating “unique American art” (qtd. in Stewart 15-16). Michael A. Chaney connects racial consciousness and the feeling of belonging somewhere, with a common heritage when he says that “all people of African ancestry, no matter how disconnected across the globe, have a common origin, which could and perhaps should unite them” (Chaney 53). Through this uniting, they would achieve what Locke described as “heightening [of] race-consciousness” and “unique American art”. Part of the Harlem Renaissance’s “unique American art” is Larsen’s novel Quicksand , which according to Hazel Carby “contains the first explicitly sexual black heroine in black women’s fiction” (qtd. in Scruggs 155). The uniqueness of Larsen’s novel is also shown by a literary award it received from the Harmon Foundation in the year of 1928 (Larson xiv). Charles R. Larson, writer of the introduction of The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen , describes Quicksand’s main character Helga Crane as “the most fully realized and convincing black woman depicted in American fiction to that date”. Additionally, he explains how Helga’s qualities could be seen in “any number of later works by African American women writers” (Larson xiv). Quicksand , with its “convincing” characterization of Helga, should be thought of and treated as a highly important piece of “unique American art” from the Harlem Renaissance.
This mirrors the novel Quicksand in several ways. Helga searches for a way to merge the two sides of her mixed heritage together. The struggle Helga experiences through her split identity is shown when she says: “Why couldn’t she have two lives, or why couldn’t she be satisfied in one place?” (123). In addition, through Helga, Larsen refers to the fact that the aim of life is not to “bleach” one’s African American identity into white ideals. She illustrates this through the point of view of the society at Naxos school for African American children, where Helga works in the beginning of the novel. In this society at Naxos, Larsen shows conflicting ideas of freedom through color imagery, as the same shade of one color might mean different things to different people. Helga in particular desires bright colors over dull ones. The dean of women at Naxos expresses how bright colors are not suitable for black people and that they should wear colors that are closer to their skin tones:
Bright colors are vulgar – Black, gray, brown, and navy blue are the most becoming colors for colored people – Dark-complected people shouldn’t wear yellow, or green, or red. (51)
Helga notices a black girl with an orange dress and she thinks it is “[o]ne of the loveliest sights” (51) ever seen, which shows that her worldview differs from the accepted one at Naxos. When one of the matrons changes the color of this dress into a dull color Helga feels upset and “[w]hy, she wondered, didn’t someone write A Plea for Color ?” (51).This wish refers to a search for ways to celebrate bright colors. Helga disagrees with the dean of women and she feels that “bright colors were fitting and that dark-complexioned people should wear yellow, green and red. Black, brown, and gray were ruinous to them” (51). Through Helga’s dislike of the matron’s choice to change the color of the orange dress, Larsen points towards Du Bois’ view that African Americans’ goal is not to “bleach” their own colors, as they express their true nature. Helga prefers bright colors because she links “race pride” with colors. She is upset about how the Naxos’ school keeps its African American children from developing pride and celebration of colors. The “spiritual beauty” of their future has been doomed to a bad fortune through “destruction” of “love of color” by Naxos. This is expressed in the following way:
These people yapped loudly of race, of race consciousness, of race pride, and yet suppressed its most delightful manifestations, love of color, joy of rhythmic motion, naïve, spontaneous laughter. Harmony, radiance, and simplicity, all the essentials of spiritual beauty in the race they had marked for destruction. (51)
To achieve this “[h]armony” and “spiritual beauty”, bright colors should be of preference. According to Helga dull colors fashion a path that leads away from freedom, and she reflects upon this in one of her descriptions of Naxos, in which she compares it to a lifeless machine programmed to create copies of white people in the white world:
[Naxos] had grown into a machine. It was now a showplace in the black belt, exemplification of the white man’s magnanimity, refutation of the black man’s inefficiency. Life had died out of it. It was, Helga decided, now only a big knife with cruelly sharp edges ruthlessly cutting all to a pattern, the white man’s pattern. Teachers as well as students were subjected to the pairing process, for it tolerated no innovations, no individualism. (39)
This mirrors how a lack of individualism leads to a loss in identity. Helga fears that this loss will lead to a lower level of freedom. Another example of Helga’s feeling that individualism is trapped in a “cage” at Naxos is when she contrasts it to the freedom she feels when she arrives in Chicago, after leaving Naxos: “the contrast between [Chicago’s] freedom and the cage which Naxos had been to her” (59). A “cage” like Naxos entraps a “racial need for gorgeousness” (51). This “cage” and captivity of freedom at Naxos refers to its people. Through Helga, Larsen expresses how the African Americans at Naxos fail in freedom due to their refusal of a “radiant” and thus bright life. By using trees as a symbol of “beauty” and “pleasure” Larsen indicates that the colors to freedom are provided by nature, and available to anyone who is open to see and benefit from them. Naxos’ lack of bright colors therefore refers to a conscious choice by its leaders, creating unconscious absence of colors among the students who in the beauty of Naxos live as if in a prison. Larsen provides Helga with the ability to see this lack of knowledge as the problem it is. That is, the inability to benefit from the beauty and freedom of the nature at Naxos, which is illustrated in this passage:
seen as a place where ideas and visions of African American children were sent to ‘die’, instead of being used as tools to develop future pride in one’s race. This future pride is dying at Naxos through its dullness of color. Thus dullness inhibits life opportunities, and this refers to a lack of life which means death. This is supported by the previous reference which says the “[l]ife had died out of [Naxos]”, and moreover that “dead” is used to describe the decay of Margaret’s hair. By using dull colors as a link to the decay of life, Larsen shows another link between bright colors and a better life. Helga leaves Naxos due to its suppression of bright colors and its prevention of racial pride in its African Americans. Racial pride is very important to Helga, and she states that: “If you couldn’t prove your ancestry and connections, you were tolerated, but you didn’t ‘belong’” (43). This shows that a mixed identity of both white and black would not find a way to make sense at Naxos.
3.2 A “realization of a dream”? Quicksand’s message to African Americans of the Harlem Renaissance is that color might lead to a better life, where “the doors of [o]pportunity” would not be slammed in their faces. Helga reflects upon this when she describes her sense of double-consciousness and compares the opportunities of finding freedom in Copenhagen, which is in Europe, and Harlem, which is in America: “This knowledge, this certainty of the division of her life into two parts in two lands, into physical freedom in Europe and spiritual freedom in America” (125). Through new contacts and centers, Helga seems to be searching for ways to make sense of her double-consciousness by trying out the opportunities of freedom in two different countries, with hopes of finding race pride and love of colors. Locke said that a new life for African Americans “is not only establishing new contacts and founding new centers, it is finding a new soul” (qtd. in Krasner 57). This view reflects the way that Helga combines her search for freedom through colors, with soul-searching that would lead to sense in her double- conscious mind. The new black soul of Harlem influenced not only African Americans, but whites as well. A poem by Ruth Dixon called “Epitome” is a reflection of how the Renaissance’s changed stereotypes of African Americans caused a positive difference in the way whites viewed blacks. Margo Natalie Crawford, who quotes the end of this poem, expresses how this new view was “a move away from unadulterated antiblack racism” and that it is a “white discovery of the beauty of the ‘Negro’” (Crawford 132). In the poem, “You” represent whites and “They” refer to black African Americans.
You fawn, you worship, you adore; You see a human god and goddess Hitherto unknown. They show a new and interesting life – (qtd. in Crawford 132)
This shows a shift in consciousness within whites, as they show a “[h]itherto unknown” worshiping for blacks. It is a new divine admiration of African American beauty and their “interesting life”. Thus, the changed stereotype of African Americans, viewed as the New Negro, is linked to a new experience of a so far “unknown” world to whites, where “a new and interesting life” exists. Furthermore, a worshipped deity is commonly seen as a force that is beyond humans being supernatural, and thus this strengthens the view that Harlem’s atmosphere brought new qualities into the spirits of people. Whites’ new recognition of African Americans is a positive presence that might improve confidence and through that bring forth harmony within blacks. Still, harmony might be difficult to find when one is not fully certain of life. Helga experiences a struggle as she poses a question that reflects upon the difficulties of belonging with contentment, “somewhere” in the world:
Frankly the question came to this: what was the matter with her? Was there, without her knowing it, some peculiar lack in her? Absurd. […] Why couldn’t she be happy, content, somewhere? (111)
This reflects how Helga searches for ways to fill her life with meaning, as she wants happiness but somehow does not seem to find it. The possible “peculiar lack” within Helga could refer to a missing part of identity that exists due to “[ b ] eing neither white nor black ”, which refers to an incomplete sense of belonging. This lack of awareness of where one truly belongs may cause unhappiness if one is unsuccessful in filling this gap of one’s identity. Helga refers to the “lack” within herself as “[a]bsurd” which points towards a feeling of not finding her “somewhere”, where she would feel happiness of belonging. One answer to
raise the level of freedom for blacks, and refuses to live among whites due to jealousy. While she “hated white people with a deep and burning hatred”, nonetheless she “aped their clothes, their manners, and their gracious ways of living” (80). She desires whites’ level of freedom among Africans Americans, and as this means being free of white people’s “wrongs and shames” (79) directed towards blacks she “refused scornfully […] any invitation from white folk” (80). Through Anne’s perspective, Larsen exemplifies the double-consciousness in Harlem during the Renaissance, as Anne imitates the life style of people whose presence she refuses. What is more, Anne becomes a representative of a woman who turns to a plea for equality in order to transcend dreams of freedom into reality, which is similar to Helga’s search for freedom through a plea for color. Anne’s plea for equality is part of her identity as “’[e]qual opportunity for all,’ were her slogans, often and emphatically repeated” (79). In comparison to Helga’s plea, Anne’s plea for equality, and therefore also freedom, is not easily solved. The way Helga describes Anne as “almost” perfect illustrates the difficulty African Americans might face on their path towards freedom. The illustration of Anne as a woman who is very close to perfection is an image that is not easy to live up to. This is supported by Cherene Sherrard-Johnson who says that “[Larsen’s] depiction of Anne “as almost too good to be true” and “almost perfect” accentuates both the illusory nature of such models and the difficulty of living up to them (Sherrard-Johnson 27). This shows the difficulty of combining physical beauty such as Anne’s with spiritual beauty that creates harmony. Most likely, Anne is going to succeed in combining physical and spiritual beauty due to the fact that she seems to be very confident in her own abilities, and she is also convinced that “she herself was lovely – more beautiful than Helga – and interesting” (124). Larsen further emphasizes Anne’s belief in her own abilities when she states that: “It was impossible that she could fail. Unthinkable” (124). This unimaginable failure refers to Anne’s determination that “her marriage should be a success” (124). On the contrary, Helga experiences a difficulty in seeing her own spiritual beauty, for example when she looks at the picture of her in Copenhagen by the Danish artist Axel Olsen. The painting of Helga “had attracted much flattering attention” and “collectors, artists, and critics had been unanimous in their praise” (119). This might be that Helga is seen as a physical beauty, but in her own mind she refuses to see herself as worthy of this admiration. This lack of belief in her own beauty is shown when she distances herself from the person in the painting, and as if it is not her at all she expresses that it is “some disgusting sensual creature with her features” (119).
This is seen through the eyes of Helga, but seen through Quicksand’s perspective as a whole novel it illustrates how Helga becomes a representative of the Danish misinterpreted view of African Americans. As Helga distances herself from this white society’s view of her as an exotic black beauty, she shows that the Danish society does not provide spiritual freedom of harmony and happiness for African Americans. Copenhagen therefore transcends into a representation of spiritual paleness, which creates a problem of achieving happiness although there is a great variety of colors at display. Similarly, this is also the case at Naxos where nature provides “pleasant” colors and is free, whereas the spirits of people are trapped. This problem of complete harmony develops as Denmark eventually turns out to be inferior in the comparison between the “pale calm of Copenhagen” and the “colorful lure of Harlem” (125). Although Helga leaves Copenhagen, this city at first seems to be a dream coming true for Helga: “To Helga Crane it was the realization of a dream that she had dreamed persistently ever since she was old enough to remember such vague things as daydreams and longings” (97). When Helga goes to stay with her aunt in Copenhagen, her plea for color is answered through a beautiful variation of sensual clothes, and especially bright shades of yellow, green, and red that African Americans, according to preferences at Naxos “shouldn’t wear” (51). The following choices of colors are considered as highly inappropriate to wear at Naxos, where the faculty “existed in constant fear that [Helga] might turn out in an evening dress” that is not in style with their “conventional garments” (52), whenever there is an occasion during the evening. With a contrasting plea for color, Copenhagen provides:
batik dresses in which mingled indigo, orange, vermilion, and black; dresses of velvet and chiffon in screaming colors, blood red, sulphur yellow, sea green; and one black and white thing in striking combination. There was a black Manila shawl strewn with great scarlet and lemon flowers, a leopard- skin coat, a glittering opera cape. (103)
Besides Helga’s opportunities to wear “bright” and “exotic” (98) clothes and jewelry, there are also “beautiful surroundings” (97), which provide Helga with more than one aspect of colors in her life. At first, this makes it into a dream of color. Eventually, this good dream transcends into a bad one, when the double identity’s doubts and questions of where to belong becomes symbolized by a dangerous “storm gathering far on the horizon” (110). It is so far an “intimation of things distant”, but it is
There was sooty black, shiny black, taupe, mahogany, bronze, copper, gold, orange, yellow, peach, ivory, pinky white, pastry white. There was yellow hair, brown hair, black hair… […] She saw black eyes in white faces, brown eyes in yellow faces, gray eyes in brown faces, blue eyes in tan faces. (90)
Helga describes Harlem’s freedom of expression like a miracle when she refers to its atmosphere as something of “miraculous joyousness” (125). If one assumes that a miracle is something unique that is not part of everyday-life, this refers to Harlem’s success in African Americans’ struggle to find a “new soul” and convert popular stereotypes through a plea for color. The fact that there is a miracle is evidence that they succeeded in reshaping stereotypes, in order to create harmony in a person whose identity is split between white and black. Furthermore, the life in Harlem is described as “intensely amusing, interesting, absorbing and enjoyable”, as a strong contrast to the life of the world outside, which is described in a degrading way as a world of “anxiety” and “insecurities of existence” (126). Three locations in Quicksand that are outside Harlem are Naxos, Copenhagen, and the small town in Alabama where Helga begins her married life. As mentioned before, Naxos becomes a symbol of “suppression of individuality and beauty” (53) that alienated Helga from the other women workers as “this urge for beauty […] helped to bring her into disfavor” (41). In the “miraculous joyousness of Harlem” there is a “moving mosaic” of colors in terms of surroundings and people that tend to draw her back into its charm. Helga expresses this with: “Leaving, she would have to come back” (125). She admires its “gorgeous panorama” (77) and the “gleaming bronze, gold, and copper” (90) colors. Helga feels more connected to the people of Harlem than with the Danes due to the fact that Copenhagen fails to provide her with the same colorful panorama as Harlem does. When she is back in Harlem she concludes that: “ These were her people. Nothing, she had come to understand now, could ever change that” (125). Furthermore, this illustrates how Harlem is a place where bright colors are alive, whereas Naxos changes brightness into dullness, and Copenhagen merely shows off brightness as some sort of “exotic” decoration in paintings or vaudeville shows with African American actors. In addition, the colors of Harlem are essential in its freedom of expression. An example of this is provided in the scene where Helga chooses to wear a dress which is a “cobwebby black net touched with orange” (87). Helga’s new dress becomes a symbol of
freedom, as she expresses that “she smiled as she decided that she would certainly wear the black net. For her it would be a symbol. She was about to fly” (87). This shows a new level of freedom, as it is linked to the time at Naxos when the black girl’s bright orange dress was changed into a dull color by one of the matrons. To “fly” evokes different visions of freedom, which all relate to nature and colors. To human beings, flying may also commonly be regarded as a “miraculous” occurrence of extraordinary qualities. Thus, freedom in the sense of flying is linked to the “joyousness of Harlem”. One view is that Helga symbolizes a bird that has been set free from a “cage” (59) in which it began losing its colors, as it sometimes happens that birds in captivity might start to pluck their colorful feathers due to boredom. Helga may be a representative of this due to the restraint of bright colors during her time at Naxos, and her dislike of its close to zero tolerance of “innovations” and “individualism” (39). Another perspective of this may be that Harlem’s colors realizes Helga’s request for colors which makes her into a symbol of a butterfly that has finally grown the wings necessary in order to “fly” and freely show off its beautiful colors. In comparison, another way in which freedom of colors exists during the Harlem Renaissance is in terms of sexuality. This is expressed by A. B. Christa Schwartz, who shows how people in Harlem were passing beyond the rules and limits of the white American society allowing challenging clothes; public display of women who loves women; and a mixture of people who freely express their sexuality:
Elaborately costumed crossdressers at Harlem drag balls, public wedding ceremonies for black lesbian couples, speakeasies entertaining racially and sexually mixed crowds with illicit drinks and sexually explicit performances – transgressive sexuality clearly represented a visible facet of life during the Harlem Renaissance. (Schwarz 141)
This is a reflection of Harlem’s freedom of expression during this period of time, and how it elaborates sexuality into “public” events. Furthermore, this passage proves that Helga is not the only one that uses Harlem for expressing things that challenges the worldview of other societies. The worldview of Harlem, in which she finds the confidence to wear clothes that are “too décolleté, and too outré” (87), the commonly accepted roles of gender and sexuality are challenged through transvestites and lesbians. These people help to enhance
