When you hear the word quicksand the image of a damsel in distress comes to mind. You imagine her as she steps unconsciously into what could be considered a natural trap. This natural trap quickly and effortlessly encloses her. This same underlining scenario happens over and over again in Nella Larsen's Quicksand. However you are not able to truly understand the trap that the white eye has created until after reading Bell Hooks "Selling Hot Pussy". In reading Nella Larsen's Quicksand and Bell Hooks "Selling Hot Pussy" you find that "Selling Hot Pussy" allows you to unlock one of the key issues in Quicksand. In Quicksand Helga Crane is continually haunted by the white eye and the spectacle it has made her. She struggles in a quest for acceptance and fulfillment. In the 19th century racism was the tool used to disconnect black and white sexuality, and vise versa. This is the dilemma that Helga Crane faces in Quicksand.
             Helga Crane is the daughter of a Danish mother and a black father, who goes to different places and communities in search of somewhere where she will feel at home. Crane is born in the quicksand because is neither completely white or black. Her quest brings her to Naxos, a Southern black school. Crane is disappointed by Naxos because it is suppose to be a one of the best schools for Negros, however the school is not the great learning environment she thought it was going to be. Larsen writes:
             This great community, she thought was no longer a school. It had grown into a machine. It was now a show place in the black belt, exemplification of the white man's magnanimity, refutation of the black man's inefficiency (4).
             Instead of being a place where the Negro children could learn on a level they could understand they were taught what their place was in society. And any suggestions positive or negative were looked down on. There was no room for progress.
             The n...