| Like her contemporary Jessie Redmon | | | | working at Tuskegee, Larsen discovered |
| Fauset, Nella Larsen also fictionalized | | | | that "along with their academic and |
| middle class society; however in | | | | vocational training, students were also |
| Larsen's works, there are undercurrents | | | | schooled in subservience and docility" |
| that imply middle class values are not | | | | (Wall 92). Larsen left Tuskegee after |
| always 'good.' Nella Larsen's only two | | | | one year. She returned to New York, |
| novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing | | | | where she quickly became discontented |
| (1929) were 'novels of passing' but | | | | with nursing and obtained a position as |
| unlike their predecessors, these two | | | | an assistant with the New York Public |
| novels are "more complex and ambitious" | | | | Library; this move put her in contact |
| (Davis 560). In these works, Larsen | | | | with the New Negro intelligentsia (Wall |
| "explores the relationships between | | | | 92). |
| appearance and reality, deception and | | | | Larsen's personal life, like her |
| unmasking, manipulation and imaginative | | | | characters, exhibits a continuous quest |
| management, aggression and self-defense" | | | | to establish an identity for herself. |
| (Davis 561). Perhaps Larsen is able to | | | | But Larsen, if she ever did succeed in |
| delve deeper into the consciousness of | | | | her quest for a sense of self, adroitly |
| people torn between two worlds because | | | | concealed it from her contemporaries and |
| she herself had experienced living in | | | | from the rest of the world. This |
| both the 'white' world and the 'black' | | | | concealment of her self is described by |
| world. | | | | Wall in an interview with a reporter: |
| Larsen's mother was an emigrant from | | | | The interview concentrated on more |
| Denmark, and her father was from the | | | | personal concerns. The "unforgivable |
| Virgin Islands. During her early | | | | sin" was being bored, so [Larsen] |
| childhood, she lived in a "white | | | | selected only amusing and natural |
| working-class neighborhood of Chicago," | | | | people, not too intellectual. She would |
| and attended an elementary school which | | | | never "pass," because "with my economic |
| consisted mainly of the "children of | | | | status it's better to be a Negro. So |
| German and Scandinavian immigrants" | | | | many things are excused them. The |
| (Wall 91). However, Wall reports that | | | | chained and downtrodden Negro is a |
| Larsen suffered "alienation" in her home | | | | picture that came out of the Civil War." |
| life, and was "ostracized at school and | | | | And while she claimed to be "not quite |
| in the neighborhood" (Wall 91). | | | | sure what she wanted to be spiritually," |
| In her teen years, Larsen attended | | | | she knew she "want[ed] things - |
| Wendell Phillips High School, and later | | | | beautiful and rich things." (Wall 120). |
| "enrolled in the high school department | | | | Wall describes many more instances of |
| of Fisk University in Nashville, | | | | Larsen's flippancy in public, detailing |
| Tennessee" which put Larsen among middle | | | | the "considerable lengths" that Larsen |
| class African Americans (Wall 92). But | | | | utilized to "project a frivolous image" |
| Larsen left Fisk after only one year, | | | | (Wall 120). The reasons for Larsen's |
| apparently "she was no more at home in | | | | deceptive image is unclear, but Wall |
| an all-black community than she had been | | | | surmises that "behind its mask, one |
| in a white one" (Wall 92). After leaving | | | | supposes, [Larsen] felt safe" (Wall |
| Fisk in 1908, until she enrolled at New | | | | 120). This "masquerade of femininity" is |
| York's Lincoln Hospital Training School | | | | a major theme in Larsen's novels, as |
| for Nurses in 1912, there exists no | | | | also is transgressing social, racial, |
| evidence of her life in the intervening | | | | and gendered boundaries. The themes |
| four years (Wall 92). Larsen says that | | | | Larsen employs mark her as a Romantic |
| she spent some time in Denmark attending | | | | novelist. |
| the University of Copenhagen, but Wall | | | | Bibliography |
| asserts that "in fact, Larsen did not | | | | Davis, Thadious M. "Nella Larsen." The |
| leave the United States" (Wall 92). Wall | | | | Oxford Companion to African American |
| further states that what Larsen did in | | | | Literature. Eds. William L. Andrews, |
| that period of her life "remains a | | | | Frances Smith Foster, and Trudier |
| mystery," that Larsen "went to great | | | | Harris. Oxford: Oxford University Press, |
| lengths to conceal" (Wall 92). | | | | 1997. 427-28. |
| After graduating from nursing school in | | | | Wall, Cheryl A. Women of the Harlem |
| 1915, Larsen accepted a position as an | | | | Renaissance. Indianapolis: Indiana |
| "assistant superintendent of nurses at | | | | University Press, 1995. |
| Tuskegee Institute" (Wall 92). While | | | | |