 |
| Photo Courtesy: Eddieretalj, deviantART.com |
She tells the story of Helga Crane, who like Larsen, was an American woman of Black and Danish heritage born in a modernist era in which the Harlem Renaissance flourished.
Helga's mixed heritage is the keystone of the irony underpinning the progressive declarations of both the modernist movement and the "new negro."
Both movements championed changes in literature, architecture and music. Post World War I enthusiasm and technological advancements fostered the enthusiasm for new possibilities. For the white modernist, the changes opened up a boldness in breaking away from social mainstays like realism and religion. For the Black American, it was an opportunity to develop a voice and to establish a status in American culture beyond the pedantic, sub-human servant.
Helga was a product of the basic modernist premise. She was educated. Of course, education was not something uncommon for an affluent, white female and since she was raised by a white mother and had spent time in Europe with her family, she may not have perceived a basic education as something uncommon. For a black person, however, education was valued much differently.
Helga despised the educational boundaries at Naxos, a school for black students in the south where she taught, because she was exposed to a far superior social experience earlier in life. She knew the students were being groomed to "know their place" in society, even though it may have appeared that they were being offered an equal opportunity.
When Helga brazenly left Naxos and moved to Chicago, she encountered a rude awakening. Unable to endear herself to her uncle's racist wife, Helga had to deal with the fact that her education and affiliation with the finer things in life did not give her any favor with white Americans. She was just black, and by being so, she was not embraced as a family member and found herself wandering the streets fighting to overcome the indignities of hunger and depression.
The cold, detachment of compassion so tightly related to modernism was on display when Helga went to the employment office hoping to find a job as a laborer. And Helga seemed to have no expectation of compassion, but rather an expectation of equality which kept her on edge regardless of her environment.
She eventually made her way to New York, secured a job and was able to stay with a wealthy widow. She adjusted to the high-quality lifestyle as if she was intended to be a recipient of opulence, but she eventually grew restless. Bluntly, she got tired of black people. Just like her uncle's wife, it didn't matter how educated and wealthy they were, they were still black.
She escaped to Europe and was embraced as an exotic curiosity. Helga was a perfect conduit of modernist artistic expression to her European suitor. Being back on the other side of the cage didn't feel to strange for her at first because she was received with admiration. It didn't take to long for her to realize, however, that "exotic" meant "sexual" and "curiosity" meant "freak."
Weary with being exploited, she escaped back to America where she found solace in the arms, and bed, of Reverend Pleasant Green. His name seemed to imply naivete, and Helga basically exploited him in the same way she felt exploited.
Helga Crane never seemed to grasp happiness and personal fulfillment. It seemed as if Larsen wanted people to see the war within a person of mixed heritage.
Helga's war was the love-hate relationship with both sides of her heritage that never seemed to progress, and one in which the white side of her heritage was trapped with the knowledge that modernist progression was indifferent towards, or simply not intended for the "new negro."
No comments:
Post a Comment