Black or White

Abstract

In this thesis my aim is to analyze Nella Larsen’s two novels, Quicksand and Passing. The writer, Nella Larsen, was born to a white Danish mother and a black West Indian father, so her mixed heritage, as well as her hard and unhappy childhood influenced her whole life and her writing as well. This influence can be seen in that her and her protagonist’s, Helga’s lives show some similarities. Like Helga, in Quicksand, she also had some problems with black schools. She also traveled a lot, just as Helga did, she lived in Harlem and she traveled in Europe (Wikipedia). In both of her novels, she examines racial identity, class problems, the questions of blackness and she analyzes the mulatto theme. She shows how her mulatto women characters, Helga Crane, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, now Mrs. Bellew, try to search for their identity in the United States, where White, Anglo-Saxon, Middle-class (WASP) have the most chance to live their lives as they wish, while black people have to face discrimination, segregation and racism.