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