Male Isolation in Jean Toomer's Cane: A Feminist Reading

Introduction: Feminism and Male Isolation in Toomer's Cane

bell hooks, the celebrated Black feminist writer and thinker, penned a book called Feminism Is for Everybody — a provocative title, though hooks is not the first writer to tackle the subject of how so-called "women's issues" can have profound consequences for men as well. Feminist literary criticism has long grappled with this central theme. In particular, Jean Toomer's Cane includes powerful vignettes that highlight just how damaging it can be for men when they do not understand and appreciate women as whole, three-dimensional human beings. Although the negative consequences the male characters suffer in "Karintha," "Becky," "Carma," and "Blood-Burning Moon" are as varied as the men themselves, the common thread among these men is isolation. It is deeply ironic that each of the central male characters in Toomer's vignettes actually creates distance and isolation from the very "thing" he obsesses over getting so close to: woman.

Idealization and Distance in 'Karintha'

The anonymous "young men" and "old men" in "Karintha" all long in vain to possess the lovely young woman whose "skin is like dusk, when the sun goes down." Karintha is placed on a pedestal, her idyllic beauty allowing men to project onto her all the ideals associated with beauty — goodness and innocence chief among them. They ignore any aspect of her personality that does not fit their vision of her: her mischievousness, even her proclivity for cruelty. The men adore Karintha blindly, fawn over her, and give her money, but instead of earning her love, they produce the opposite effect. We are told that Karintha "has contempt for them."

Implicit in Karintha's contempt, one could argue, is the fact that no one ever truly saw her for who she was, let alone loved her for who she was. She could never return the love of a man because no man ever loved Karintha — only the idea of Karintha. The end result for all the men in the story is isolation from the very woman they desired most. No man will ever have Karintha, at least no man who persists in loving the hollow vision of a perfect Karintha the way the male characters in the story do.

Absence and Hidden Isolation in 'Becky'

Isolation is clearly also a central theme of the vignette "Becky." The isolation of the young white woman who had two Black sons and was cast out by both the Black and white communities is obvious, but one must dig a little deeper to find the suggestion of male isolation implicit in the text. Toomer's Cane offers no explicit mention of the father or fathers of Becky's two boys, yet his absence is keenly felt. There is, however, mention of several different men who show apparent kindnesses to Becky: one man builds her a cabin in the woods, another donates building supplies, another sometimes brings her "sugar sap." Could one of these men be the father of Becky's children?

It is entirely possible, and if so, then it is also possible that Becky's children were born out of love with one of these kind men — a man who simply lacked the courage to be with her, a fallen white woman, because of societal pressures. Perhaps it is too optimistic a reading, but "Becky" at times reads like a fairytale that just did not quite happen. Becky lives with her two boys in a small, almost picturesque cabin in the woods with a "leaning chimney" from which "smoke curled up," and kind neighbors drop by leaving gifts of food. If only the missing father were in the picture, the story would be a perfect fairytale. But the father is out there somewhere, separated from a woman he could — maybe even does — love, and from his two children. He too is isolated, unwilling or unable to be with his family because the world views Becky as somehow less than a woman, perhaps even less than human, for having had sexual contact with a Black man.

Conclusion: Toomer's Own Limitations

Looking at each of Toomer's vignettes and seeing how each of the male characters creates his own isolation by failing to perceive women clearly makes for compelling character studies. It also opens up new questions — especially about the author himself. To a certain extent, the male characters discussed do not perceive women in their entirety, but there is also the possibility that Toomer does not either. After all, Toomer could have drawn more fully dimensional female characters and allowed at least the reader, if not the characters in the text, to know more about the thoughts and feelings of the women. The fact that he does not suggests that Toomer may have perceived women as flatly as some of his fictionalized male counterparts — a final, ironic dimension to a work that otherwise so sharply exposes the cost of that very failure.

Note: "bell hooks" is spelled in all lowercase throughout this essay because that is how the author's name is widely recognized, in keeping with hooks's own preference.