Cane by Jean Toomer

A detailed Summary of Cane by Jean Toomer

"If the fabric of Cane is the life essence and its meaning behind absurdity, then Jean Toomer's women characters are the threads which weave cane together....perhaps they are all the same women archetypal women, all wearing different faces, but each possessing an identifiable aspect of womanhood. (Jean Toomer Cane, pg.257) In Toomer's Cane the struggle of women in the South is seen vividly throughout the first section of the book. Toomer portrays these women in a very sympathetic vein and shows how women are victimized by a patriarchal society. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the theme of women in conflict with man and nature and how these themes relate to the various characters in the book.

In the first novel titled "Karintha", Toomer tells a story of a young lad who was a victim of her own beauty. Toomer's poetic beauty is very descriptive and is seen when he describes Karintha's beauty as "perfect as dusk when the sun goes down." Even the minister forgives her indiscretions by calling her"...innocently lovely as a November cotton flower."

Karintha's "perfect beauty" is a double edged sword, for its' the source of admiration wanted and wanted, and is misunderstood and misused. According to Benson, Karint

The fact that Becky has two mulatto sons is reason enough for her respective communities to isolate and reject her. Her communities rejection of her and her sons was a symbolic death that foreshadowed her own physical death. "Even before her physical death, Becky is considered dead as a productive, desirable, person in the community...Thus, her isolation represents a spiritual as well as physical punishment". (Dillard, pg.54) According to Dutch, "The frame for Becky reveals Becky's story in four prose sentences..."Unlike Karintha, Becky -the white woman who had two Negro sons-is not an object of affection for the people in the community...she is an object of hatred for the people in the community. (Toomer, pg.267) This rejection of Becky and her sons makes her life all the more hard and complicated; for her struggle and suffering is eminent but unfortunately it ends with her death at the collapse of her house.

ha's true beauty "lies in the spirit not the flesh." Benson is alluding to the opening passages of Karintha when Toomer mentions that "her skin is like dusk on in the eastern horizon," this description is very mystical yet transient, and is sufficient evidence for Benson's spiritual beauty conclusion. Other critics have also touched upon this subject, according to Houston Baker, "Men are attracted to the heroine but fail to appreciate what's of value."

The Karintha titled section of the book is intended to give the reader a realistic view of a particular type of girl in Southern culture. It's impli

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1028
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English