The literary trend of modernism has brought about influential works of literature such as Nella Larsen’s Quicksand. Although not as blatantly influenced by modernism as the works of Gertrude Stein and T. S. Eliot, Quicksand has indeed been touched by this movement. Brought about by a quick onset of changes technologically and socially, modernism can be characterized as the antithesis of traditional ways of writing with its focus on experimental and creative ways of explaining the world in fragmented ways since the amount of rapid world changes made everything seem bleaker (Childs 20). Quicksand does not necessarily deviate from normal story telling techniques that modernism tries to do away with. Rather, this novel’s focus on the internal crisis
