Nella Larsen developed the figure of Helga Crane in a way that lets the reader take part in her desperate search for her selfhood and a place she can call her home. Larsen characterised that search by addressing topics such as the feeling of alienation, the questions of race- and gender-consciousness, the acceptance of ones sensuality, sexuality and womanhood, as well as the search for love, recognition and understanding. .
Helga Crane moves continuously throughout the story, her restlessness brings her from Naxos to Harlem, from there to Copenhagen and back again to Harlem, until she finally ends up in the rural South of Alabama. Naxos is a small town which houses "the finest school for Negroes anywhere in the country, north or south (.) it was better even than a great many schools for white children.""ss For Helga was this exceptional institution for "Negro education- a "monument to one man's genius- which she desperately wanted to be a part of.(38) Her enthusiastic first years, during which she attempted to improve the educational system through new ideas and help making their students into joyful proud beings, her eagerness soon made place for a depressing notion of being "powerless-.aa Not only was the school "so surely ready to destroy (.) those happy singing children-, it even had taken its toll on her.(41) Helga feels out of place, not belonging to the people around her and misunderstood in "this craving, this urge for beauty- she had been experiencing throughout her life.da Not only does she spend her money on books or furnishings, Helga enjoys dressing herself in colourful and elaborate clothes. Her desire for fine fabric and vivid colours immediately catches the reader's attention when being introduced to her room. She is dressed "in vivid green and gold negligee and glistening brocaded mules- and her room contains objects in al different shapes and colours.( ) Helga has obviously turned towards material comfort to make up for the lack of family and kinship that haunts her.
