Helga and Melcantha

"Negro society, she had learned, was as complicated and as rigid in its ramifications as the highest strata of white society. If you couldn't prove your ancestry and connections, you were tolerated, but you didn't "belong" (Larsen, 8).

As is my trend, I feel it necessary to compare what we're currently reading to something we've read before: Melcantha. For Rose, there seemed to be some sort of emphasis on being "common". I can assume that this is because Rose felt as if she was someone special and therefore "uncommon" because she was raised by a white family. This sort of dynamic plays out in Quicksand as we see that Helga is not accepted by her beau's family because she doesn't come from a well known black family. I also am curious if the emphasis on heritage is so that a family can be seen as in good company or if it is because they are trying to stay true to their ethnic heritage and not associate with those who are racially mixed?

This connection between rigid white society is reaffirmed when the white preacher speaks to the black congregation at the beginning of the novel. Obviously, the school is not only for the education of young black people but also for the constraint of any ideas of progression. The ramifications of white society, of being rigid, conformist and collectivist, are instilled in the students that attended Naxos as to avoid any sort of thought of improvement within the black community. If they felt accepted by the condescension that awaited them at Naxos, who is to say that they would ever challenge any sort of white supremacy?

I also find it necessary to compare Melcantha herself to Helga. Melcantha was always wandering in her search for knowledge, for belonging, and in this case, so is Helga. Her initial motivation to teach at Naxos is to spread her knowledge and enlighten her students; when she soon becomes disillusioned with the reality of her conformist environment, Helga is soon ready to "wander" in search of a place not "smug and fat with self-satisfaction" (Larsen, 4).