Jean Toomer's Cane

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Jean Toomer’s famous book “Cane” is a work of the Harlem Renaissance that has come across the complex of identity, alienation, and race/racism back in the day of America. Even though Jean Toomer’s Cane is an experimental novel that has so many different themes, the ones I picked he has looked into some of these themes. These themes lighten the problems African Americans have had to go through and go through during this time. Jean Toomer demonstrates/shows the identity crisis that is forming across some of his stories and also the exposure to alienation and the impact that race/racism had fixed these people back then and what has happened to the people and the communities during that time. Cane sheds light on these challenges that African Americans …show more content…
In one of his stories, Becky is a good example because she is dealing with some identity issues. Becky is a light-skinned African American whose skin passed her as a white woman; she had two mixed sons. When she was pregnant with her first son, the white folks and the black folks had built her a cabin on the narrow strip of land between the railroad tracks (Jean Toomer “Cane” page 1145). And after she gave birth to the baby, they told her they did not want anything to do with her anymore, but they still gave her food sometimes. But knowing some of Becky's background, she was on a search to try to figure out her identity and where she belonged because the white folks did not want anything to do with her, nor did the black folks. So she was just trying to figure out where she would fit in because they were not so welcoming to who she was and to the choices that she wanted to make. This story and Becky as a character reflect the challenges that some individuals who were mixed had to go through, also they had to negotiate their identity just so they could thrive and succeed in life back
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