The most tragic thing about her experiences, which clearly depicts a part of Larsen's life, is her families' rejection.fg Growing up in an environment that consists of "savage unkindness of (.) stepbrothers and -sisters and the jealous, malicious hatred of her mother's husband- was certainly enough to make Helga believe that she was not worth anything, that she was someone that did not confirm to the standards set by society and was therefore not acceptable as an individual. (56) The effect of insufficient love and respect experienced throughout her childhood have been hunting Helga ever since. However, it should not be left out, that she seems to blame everything that goes wrong on her heritage. Helga Crane doesn't even consider that there are alternatives, that someone actually could value her. One incident this becomes apparent is when informing Robert Anderson about leaving Naxos. When asserting her that "we need (.) more people like you, people with a sense of value, an appreciation of the rarer things of life- and that she is "a lady [with] dignity and breeding- she totally misunderstands him. Instead of seeing his reference to her character and her individuality, which was something she was able "to give- to the school, she immediately blocks out his notion that she is the living "prove [that] financial, economic circumstances- are nothing against the inner qualities of a person. Instead of choosing to stay and actively help to propagate the rightfulness of individuality, decides Helga to leave that uncomfortable situation and head on to Chicago. .
No understandable indication is given why Helga chose to return to the "dirty, mad, hurrying city- she was born in. After all had she neither "home [nor] any friends here."" (59) Shocking is to Helga the discovery, that she even lost the last family ties she had been able to hold on to. Uncle Peter, "the one relative who thought kindly, or even calmly of her- and who had supported her financial over the years has lots its reassuring position.