Learning to Fly
Imagery is vividly used to convey Helga’s desire for independence; it is metaphorically situated within image of flight. Helga decides that she is “about to fly” as the result of an image of herself. The ability to fly is intricately connected to a daring exhibition of fashion. Green and blue are not the colors of flight; black and orange are. The decision to defiantly express her independence will be physically manifested through the adornment of “that cobwebby black net touched with orange, which she had bought last spring in a fit of extravagance and never worn, because” her friend Anne advised “There’s not enough of it.”
The (Gray) Windy City
If black is the color of flight, then gray is the color of misery. Gray is the dominant imagery associated with Chicago and Chicago is a city that Helga associated with misery. The opening words of the chapter that commences the section of the book taking place there are “Gray Chicago seethed.” A Chicago woman is described as having “shining gray hair” and on a “leaden gray” Helga makes her way to “ugly gray” library.
Style in Revolt
Having already shown a propensity for clothing to inspire rebellion, by the time she makes her way to Copenhagen that propensity becomes a full-fledged character trait. Once again it is the imagery of clothing that symbolizes a decision to become more assertive, but in this case the boldness is not linked to a certain color but a more tactile sensory experience:
“It was almost in a mood of rebellion that Helga faced the fantastic collection of garments incongruously laid out in the quaint, stiff, pale old room. There were batik dresses in which mingled indigo, orange, green, vermilion, and black; dresses of velvet and chiffon in screaming colors, blood-red, sulphur-yellow, sea-green; and one black and white thing in striking combination. There was a black Manila shawl strewn with great scarlet and lemon flowers, a leopard-skin coat, a glittering opera-cape. There were turban-like hats of metallic silks, feathers and furs, strange jewelry, enameled or set with odd semiprecious stones, a nauseous Eastern perfume, shoes with dangerously high heels. Gradually Helga’s perturbation subsided in the unusual pleasure of having so many new and expensive clothes at one time. She began to feel a little excited, incited.”
Aside from not associating rebellion with a single color, this passage also differs from the previous example involving fashion by the understated, but unavoidably sexuality associated with the use of imagery. In fact, the passage can almost be described as orgasmic at it builds from the image of garments laid in a “quaint, stiff pale old room” to the those “dangerously high heels” that are the climax of the paragraph and which leaves her not just excited, but “incited.”
Flying
It is no mere coincidence that black is the color of flight for Helga. In contrast, pale is the shade of death; a description of things stripped of all color throughout the novel. Black is the acceptance of half a culture denied legitimacy by half a population. Literally by putting on her blackness can Helga take flight and what is more natural for a Crane than flight? Imagery of flight subtly pervade the novel until taken out of context. Only then does this pervasiveness seem less than subtle; only the does it seem out of place:
“Over the flying landscape”
“the flying cabs, and the swirling crowds seemed manifestations of purposed malevolence.”
“a small crumpled thing in a fragile, flying black and gold dress.”
“a tallish man with a flying mane of reddish blond hair”
“flying broad white sails”
“the flying wave of her hair”
“flying ribbons, feathery neck-pieces”
