Cane by Jean Toomer

First published: 1923

Type of work: Poetry and short fiction

Type of plot: Experimental

Time of plot: Early twentieth century

Locale: Georgia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago

Principal characters

• Karintha, a beautiful young woman in Georgia
• Becky, a white woman with two black sons
• Esther, who becomes obsessed with King Barlo
• King Barlo, a man whom Esther thinks is a prophet
• Louisa, an African American woman loved by two men
• Tom Burwell, a man who loves Louisa
• Bob Stone, a white man who loves Louisa
• Rhobert, a man obsessed with home ownership
• Paul Johnson, a student in Chicago
• Bona Hale, a student to whom Paul is attracted
• Ralph Kabnis, a teacher from Washington, D.C.
• Father John, a former slave, living in Halsey’s basement

The Story:

The title character of “Karintha” is a woman whose beauty captivates men, making her like “a growing thing ripened too soon.” She has a child, whom she apparently kills, and she becomes a prostitute. Becky is a white woman cast out by the community because she has two black sons. Townspeople build her a cabin and take food to her, but never see her. The boys grow up, cause trouble, and leave, cursing people of both races. When Becky’s chimney collapses, burying her, someone throws a Bible onto the rubble.

The title character of “Carma” has affairs when her husband is away; he finds out and accuses her. She takes a gun into the cane field. Hearing a shot, her husband gathers men and finds her. The men carry her home and search for a wound, waking her. Realizing that he is deceived by his wife again, her husband becomes irrational and cuts one of the searchers. He is sent to work on the chain gang.

“Fern” tells of a young woman whose eyes attract men. They want to do great things for her, but she tires of them. A northerner visiting relatives in Georgia meets Fern. During a walk, he holds her, but she breaks away, sings a pained song, then faints. He can think of nothing to do for her, and he goes back north.

“Esther” follows its title character for eighteen years. When she is nine, she sees King Barlo appear to go into a trance and talk about an African’s coming to the United States to redeem people. Years after Barlo leaves town, Esther dreams of having a child who is rescued from a fire. At first, she dreams the child is conceived without the involvement of sex; when Esther imagines normal conception, the child becomes ugly like Barlo. Barlo returns when Esther is twenty-seven years of age; she visits him, but he repulses her, making her feel empty.

Louisa, in “Blood-Burning Moon,” works for the family of her white admirer, Bob Stone, who wishes she were his slave. Tom Burwell, a black laborer, also loves her. One night, Stone finds Burwell talking with Louisa and challenges him. When Stone draws a knife, Burwell kills him. White townspeople burn Burwell in an old factory under a full, red moon.

In “Reapers,” the narrator watches workers sharpen scythes and sees a horse-pulled mower cut a rat, then continue mowing. “November Cotton Flower” describes misery caused by drought and boll weevils; the untimely beauty of a cotton flower blooming in November causes people to lose fear. In “Cotton Song,” cotton rollers sing of making a path to God’s throne. In “Georgia Dusk,” sawmill workers sing while walking home through the cane, combining music of African heritage with Christian hymns.

“Seventh Street” describes a street in Washington, D.C., that shows the influence of Prohibition and World War I. “Rhobert” is about a man who suffers the burdens of home ownership. “Calling Jesus” is about a woman whose soul follows her like a dog throughout the city, finding her only in dreams of hay and cane.

In “Avey,” a man loves Avey from childhood, although he finds her indolent. After returning to Washington, D.C., from school, he runs into her again, and they go to a park, where he talks and she falls asleep.

“Theater” tells the story of a dancer, Dorris, who senses the attraction of the cabaret manager’s brother, John. John dreams of Dorris but believes the difference between them is too strong for a relationship, so he does not pursue her. His rejection causes her pain. Dan Moore, in “Box Seat,” feels anger toward a society that will not let him be its savior. He loves Muriel, a teacher, but she cannot become involved with such an unrooted man. Dan follows her to a vaudeville show, during which two dwarves fight; then one sings and offers a bloody rose to Muriel, who rejects it. Dan rises, shouts, and storms out, angering a man who challenges him to a fight. By the time Dan gets outside, he forgets the man.

“Bona and Paul” tells of two students. Paul’s dark complexion causes rumors that he is black; everyone else in the school is white. He becomes attracted to Bona, a southerner, and a friend invites them on a double date. Their attraction is mutual, and they leave the nightclub together. Paul stops to tell the doorman of their love, and Bona leaves.

In “Beehive,” a man likens himself to a honey-drinking drone in a crowded hive, wishing he could fly to a farmyard flower. “Her Lips Are Copper Wire” uses urban electrical objects to describe a woman’s sexuality. “Storm Ending” compares thunder to bell-like flowers. “Prayer” is about the soul’s separation from body and mind and its paradoxical strength and frailty. “Harvest Song” describes a tired, thirsty, hungry reaper who distracts himself with pain.

“Kabnis” tells of Ralph Kabnis, a Washingtonian with southern roots, who comes to a small Georgia town to teach. Unable to sleep, he kills a noisy hen in the next room. The next day he goes to church, then talks with his friends Halsey and Layman about lynchings. Through the window comes a stone with a note telling the black man from the North to go home. Kabnis is terrified. That evening, Halsey and Layman bring moonshine to calm him. Hanby, the principal, fires him for drinking, and Halsey offers him a job in his blacksmith’s shop. Lewis comes to Kabnis’s cabin and says the note was meant for him, not Kabnis. Kabnis, Lewis, and some women accompany Halsey to his basement to visit a former slave they call Father John. The next morning, Kabnis and Carrie Kate, Halsey’s sister, hear the old man say “sin” several times. He explains that the sin is white people’s making the Bible lie. Kabnis replies with contempt, but Carrie seems uplifted and calms Kabnis.

Bibliography

Benson, Brian Joseph, and Mabel Mayle Dillard. Jean Toomer. Boston: Twayne, 1980. Discusses Toomer’s writing, especially Cane. Includes bibliography.

Bone, Robert. Down Home: Origins of the Afro-American Short Story. New York: Columbia University Press, 1988. A critical survey that stresses the debts of black writers to an oral tradition that Bone calls a “blues aesthetic.” The chapter on Toomer reviews his entire career, including the important influences of Sherwood Anderson and Waldo Frank, and includes detailed analyses of three stories from Cane: “Fern,” “Theater,” and “Bona and Paul.”

‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. The Negro Novel in America. Rev. ed. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1965. A pioneering study of black writing from 1853 to the works of James Baldwin. Bone’s chapter on the Harlem School remains valuable, particularly for his discussion of Toomer and Cane.

Durham, Frank, ed. The Merrill Studies in “Cane.” Columbus, Ohio: Charles E. Merrill, 1971. Includes critical studies of Cane published from 1923 to 1969. Of special interest is Waldo Frank’s foreword to the first edition of the novel. Many other useful studies are included, by such people as Robert Bone, Arna Bontemps, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Of questionable purpose is Durham’s grouping of the selections by each author’s race, especially since his racial classifications are not always correct.

Fabre, Geneviève, and Michel Feith, eds. Jean Toomer and the Harlem Renaissance. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 2001. Collection of essays about Cane, including discussions of Cane, modernism, and race in interwar America; myth and belonging, and preaching and dreaming in Cane; race and visual arts in the works of Toomer and Georgia O’Keefe; and analyses of some of the stories.

Kerman, Cynthia Earl, and Richard Eldridge. The Lives of Jean Toomer: A Hunger for Wholeness. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1987. Contains a long chapter about Cane, discussing autobiographical elements, the circumstances of its writing, and other authors’ reactions to the work.

McKay, Nellie Y. Jean Toomer, Artist: A Study of His Literary Life and Work, 1894-1936. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1984. A comprehensive and lucidly written study, benefiting from McKay’s access to the collection of Toomer manuscripts and correspondence at Fisk University. The interpretation of Toomer’s imagery, structure, and themes is convincing, and McKay makes the interesting suggestion of a link between Cane and James Joyce’s novel Ulysses (1922).

O’Daniel, Therman B., ed. Jean Toomer: A Critical Evaluation. Washington, D.C.: Howard University Press, 1988. This lengthy work includes essays about influences on Cane, interpretations of the book, male-female relationships, female characters, and other elements, as well as about Toomer himself. Includes a useful bibliography.

Toomer, Jean. Cane: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds, Criticism. Edited by Darwin T. Turner. New York: W. W. Norton, 1988. Edited by a leading scholar in the field of black literature and a major force in advancing the reputation of Jean Toomer. In addition to reprinting the text of Cane, this excellent book includes early assessments of the novel, correspondence about his work between Toomer and others, and a balanced selection of critical studies from 1958 to 1984.

Whalan, Mark. Race, Manhood, and Modernism in America: The Short Story Cycles of Sherwood Anderson and Jean Toomer. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2007. A comparison of Cane and Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio. Examines how Toomer aims to broaden the racial basis of American culture to conceive a new type of manhood.