Summary Of Sanctuary By Nella Larsen

Nella Larsen’s response and actions, in the article done by Hildegard Hoeller, “Race, Modernism, and Plagiarism: The Case of Nella Larsen’s ‘Sanctuary’”, reminds me of a child whose hand was caught trying to steal cookies out of a cookie jar. Sanctuary by Nella Larsen was a story that dealt with racial implications and motherhood, which when reading the story it a very good narrative. Even though that there can be a claim that Nella Larsen did not steal this story, claiming it is, “part of ‘almost black folklore’(424)”,meaning that people in African society during this time were very common with the story. The claim that Larsen is making doesn’t really convince many literary authors because of the loose ends, the story in comparison to Sheila Kaye-Smith’s Mrs. Adis, is too similar for this story to not be plagiarized.
The basic response done by Nella Larsen, to the accusation that she plagiarized the story, is basically her blaming race.
Hoeller explains, “…the telling and origin of which can be placed in time and space and author. Once she talks to blacks-and removes herself from a white paradigm-she learns how to read the story now as ‘absolute’ truth but as part of racial commonwealth that belongs to all black people and that has been shaped and reshaped hundreds of times (424)” Meaning that Nella believes that it is not her fault the story was already told and that if anything Harlem Renaissance society should be credited to the story, not Sheila Kaye-Smith. “The racial nature of this paradigm shifts is accentuated by Larsen’s starkly racial description of the hospital. Apart from the old woman, her source and hospital ‘inmate’, no one is named; characters are just labeled as black or white
(425)”.
Cheryl Wall makes an interesting claim towards the actions by Nella Larsen, “Larsen’s account may not be a total fabrication but it contains a signal flaw. No source for the story in the ‘folk’ tradition has ever been identified (424)”. An interesting point, because there is a belief that maybe Larsen heard the story by another person but a problem because prior to Kaye-Smith’s story there was never a story similar to the tale. The idea is that the story was a famous tale told throughout the ages, like the story of the three little pigs, a tale famous amongst the African American community. “ ‘ I’m in trouble,’ His hands were shaking a little’ (Kaye-Smeith 321)” in comparison to “ ‘Ah’s in trubble Mrs’ Poole.’ The man explained, his voice shaking, his fingers twitching (Larsen, “Sanctuary”, 15), two parts of the story taken reading and trying to create a very similar picture.
“Larsen’s mardinist revision of Kaye-Smith, then, could be read as a gesture in tune with modernist concerns but did it particulary fail (431)”, because of the fact that Larsen tried stating issues about race or trying to say she was looking into a modernist view of the story. Instead of Larsen coming out and saying, the story would be stronger if the characters were black or she had a better version of the story, this article and discussion would not exist. Due to the face that Larsen didn’t really give a wholesale answer of why she wrote a story similar to Kaye-Smith’s which lead many critics, and me, to not believe her. The fact that Larsen never wrote any novel or story getting caught proves that she felt guilty. In the discussion board, the ever smart and intellectual Alyssa Crick, wrote:
“ ‘For some fifteen years I believed this story absolutely and entertained a kind of admiring pity for the old woman. But lately, in talking it over with Negroes, I find that the tale is so old and so well known that it is almost folklore. It has many variations: sometimes it is a woman’s brother, husband, son, lover, preacher, beloved master, or even her father, mother, sister, or daughter who is killed.’
This to me, in her explanation says even if she did get dangerously close to Kaye Smith’s writing, that it wasn’t a conscious endeavor on her part. I do not agree that she would consciously put herself in that damaging position and not risk her career, for which she had gained much achievement on an astonishing scale for a woman, let alone an African American Woman.”
With this general statement I would love to agree to disagree. To me it’s so hard to imagine “accidental theft”, because when creating something people don’t generally create the same exact story line or imagery as other people. Another question I would love to ponder is, where are the other Africans that know of this story? I have yet to see another person come out and defend Larsen, saying that the story she wrote was not stolen but was famously known. Larsen even claims all the people who know of the story, well since she does can she please have a person explain this situation to everyone?

Word Count: 830
Word Count w/out big Quote: 691