Cane by Jean Toomer

Toomers lather, published in 1923, is a collection vignettes and poems divided into ternary contri scarcelyions. Cane has served a curiously integral role in African-American literature, as it concurrently presents the shady southern country-style experience and the black northerly urban experience. Throughout Cane, Toomer utilizes some(prenominal) themes in an attempt to submit a connection between the two. Cane examines issues of race on several different levels. Primarily, Toomer displays how blacks argon treated in American society. In the south, elements of danger argon always present. The character Becky exhibits this, as she is rejected by twain blacks and snow-whites for having crossed the color transmission channel by sleeping with a black man. Ramifications of racial tensions argon further displayed by the death of character Tom Burwell, who is flat killed by a white mob after an fracas with a white man, bobtail Stone. Toomer uses Burwell and Stone to displ ay the racial barriers created by bigotry; these barriers finally prevent interpersonal relationships from forming successfully. In addition to hostilities between blacks and whites, Cane examines racism that exists within the black community alone. Characters Bona and Paul be ultimately driven apart, as Paul is unable to allow his identity as a black man.\nThe first section of Cane is dedicated to stray portraits of single women and societys attitudes toward them. Karintha is an obscure figure who is only(prenominal) presented in the context of her tangible attractiveness. Throughout her existence, she is perceived by men as a sexual object. Similarly, Fern entrances the narrator of her story, but he does not orient any interest in understanding why. Burwell and Stone employment over Louisa to the point of death, but little is ever express about who Louisa really is. On the other hand, Toomer ends Cane with Carrie. K, who foils the women presented in the first section by a ppearing enlightened and levelheaded.\nAnoth...