Helga cannot suppress her desire to flee from uncomfortable situations in any city that she lives in. In Naxos, she convinces herself that she is leaving a place that has "grown into a machine" (4). Although the conforming nature of the institution contributes to Helga's desire to leave, she is also stirred with "an overpowering desire for action of some sort" (4). Instead of staying in Naxos and fighting a battle against the institute's conservative attitud

In New York, Helga is also consumed by the animal instinct of flight. When Dr. Anderson calls on her after a chance meeting at a nightclub, Helga "had no intention of running away, but something, some imp of contumacy, drove her from his presence, though she longed to stay" (51). Once again, Helga succumbs to her overwhelming desire to leave an uncomfortable situation. Later she realizes with a "sense of helplessness and inevitability...that the weapon she had chosen had been a boomerang, for she herself had felt the keen disappointment of the denial" (51). Obviously Helga is denying her attraction to Dr. Anderson and hides it with an uncontrollable "wish to wound" him (51). Clearly, Helga is internally struggling with her sexual desire for Dr. Anderson by disguising it with anger towards him. However, instead of confronting these emotions, Helga again allows her natural instinct of flight to take over in order to deal with the situation.

Helga's inability to conform in her respective communities illustrates her sociological determinism. In Naxos, she realizes that the African American society is "as complicated and as rigid as the highest strata of white society. If you couldn't prove your ancestry and connections, you were tolerated, but you didn't belong" (8). Although Helga knows her ancestry, she never reveals her white heritage to African Americans. However, Helga's desire to be different is reflected in her apparel. She wears elaborate, colorful clothes that cause her peers to detect "the subtle difference from their own irreproachably conventional garments" (18). Helga does not desire to conform in Naxos but she knows too that she is not "happy in her unconformity" (7). Instead of deciding to adapt to life at Naxos, Helga alienates herself from other individuals.

By the time Helga's desire to leave Alabama is evident, it is clear that Helga's natural instinct to constantly escape the reality of her life has become her downfall. This time, she has responsibility towards her children who "she wanted not to leave - if that were possibl

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Approximate Word count = 1398
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)