Quicksand, Chapter Fifteen Summary

Helga is unhappy again and puzzled by it. She feels like a peacock; she is upset to hear that Anne is going to marry Dr. Anderson. She does not want to return to America where Negroes are treated as less than second-class citizens and forced to beg for their natural rights. At a vaudeville show, American Negroes sing ragtime music, and delight the Danish audience, but Helga is not amused. She feels hatred and shame for them and feels Negroes do not admire themselves, proved by their negative imitations of themselves and their need to be equal. But she returns again and again to watch the Negro performers, feeling her conflicts but not willing to look too deeply into herself.

Helga wanted Axel Olson to propose to her but now suspects he is uncomfortable with her race, so she...