One is the Loneliest Number The feeling of never truly belonging, no matter where you are or who you are with, can be paralyzing. This feeling can affect every aspect of your life. As the band Three Dog Night so eloquently puts it: “one is the loneliest number you’ll ever do.” Everyone feels lonely and sad sometimes during their life, but when this feeling is never satisfied, it becomes like a disease. Desperately trying to find your place and feel at home can be exhausting and, in some cases, endless. In Quicksand by Nella Larsen, there is a constant theme of isolation and alienation, which subsequently affects every aspect of the life of the main character, Helga Crane, throughout the novella. When we first meet Helga at the beginning of Quicksand, we immediately get the sense that she is unhappy where she is in her life. Helga quickly decides to leave her teaching job in Naxos to settle in Chicago. Throughout the rest of the novella, Helga makes impulsive choices like this and travels elsewhere to try to find something she can never find. She always believes that the next place will bring her the happiness and true sense of belonging she dreams of. Larsen explains Helga's feelings of discontent with her life: But it did not last, this happiness of Helga Crane. Little by little, the signs of spring were appearing, but strangely, the enchantment of the season, so warmly, so generously welcomed by the gay inhabitants of Harlem, filled her only with anxiety. Somewhere inside her, in a deep corner, discontent lurked. She began to lose confidence in the fullness of her life, the glow of her conception of it began to fade. As the days grew, she needed something... middle of paper ... from the century, when there was a very conservative society that had explicit gender and race roles. Through these themes in Quicksand, Larsen could highlight his own feelings towards his heritage and his biracial life. Nella Larsen wrote to Helga to be ahead of her time. She is a fiercely materialistic and intelligent woman of biracial ethnicity in an era that did not allow for changes in social norms and roles. Due to these strict societal barriers, her own self-doubt and internal struggles, Helga continually allows herself to drown in the quicksand of her isolationist feelings and life.BibliographyLarsen, Nella. Quicksand and passage. Ed. Deborah E. McDowell. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1986. Print.Honor CodeI, Julia Cohn, pledge my word of honor that I have upheld the Washington College Honor Code while fulfilling this assignment..