In Nella Larsen's novel Quicksand, the reader follows the story of a mulatto woman, Helga Crane, who longs for a place of true belonging and fights her internal discontent by moving to a place after 'other. However, even among black people in America, she is treated differently when they know about her white mother. When her black ex-boyfriend, James Vayle, made her feel like one, "she threw out rather harshly: 'I'm a nigger too, you know.' «Well, Helga, you have always been a little different, a little dissatisfied, although I don't pretend to understand you at all. I never did,' [James] said a little wistfully” (Larsen 612). When Helga first arrives in Harlem, New York, an all-black community, she feels connected to other people because of her black ancestry and father. Although other people of color seem to share this strong bond with her, the one who is aware of her immediate white blood, James, sees her as something of an outsider for this reason. He speaks to her as if she too is not a person of color but some sort of alien that he cannot classify, since she is neither white, which is the opposition, nor black, which is an ally, but something completely different. Additionally, James finds it strange that he can identify with both whites and blacks. Helga also describes her situation in Harlem as