from their roots and placed in an unfamiliar culture. Various characters in the collection embody different reactions or challenges related to this overarching theme.

The first section of Cane includes short stories about women who manage to distance themselves from the dominant culture: Karintha, Carma, and Becky. Each of these women possesses a sexual vitality and enigma that defies the norms of their communities. To her peers, Karintha exudes a powerful sexual energy and primal aggression that many find intimidating. However, it is primarily the men, shaped by Western culture, who distort her innocent sexuality. Old men play "hobby horse" with her on their knees, and young men eagerly await the day they can pursue her sexually. Carma is a woman with extraordinary strength, comparable to a man's, and a potent sexual drive. When her husband leaves for a contracting job, she takes other lovers. Upon her husband's return and discovery of her infidelity, she flees into the cane field and feigns shooting herself. As men carry her back, she becomes aroused by their touch, revealing her ruse to her husband, who then kills one of the men in a fit of rage. Becky, a white woman, defies sexual and cultural boundaries by having children with black men, a taboo in the 1920s, particularly in the South. Despite maintaining their identities and resisting the influence of white culture, Karintha, Carma, and Becky ultimately become victims of that very culture.

Unlike Karintha, Carma, and Becky, another set of characters from the first two sections of Cane are influenced by western culture, which results in their living in confusion and alienation. Esther, for instance, comes from a more affluent family in her small southern town; she is the daughter of a store owner. Her skin tone suggests she is part white—in fact, at age nine, she "looks like a little white child." This causes an identity crisis, leading her to a life of seclusion and fantasy. Muriel, from the story "Box Seat," conforms to urban societal norms. Despite her attraction to Dan, she refrains from loving him because he does not fit into conventional society. She questions when he will find a job and settle down, thus urban society suppresses Muriel's desires. Dorris, from the story "Theater," also struggles to express her feelings because the object of her affection is more educated and sophisticated than she is. John, the man Dorris loves, mirrors Esther in that he fulfills his desires through fantasy rather than pursuing Dorris.

In a mysterious way, certain characters throughout Cane embody African spiritual and cultural origins, which other characters either embrace or suppress. Fern, much like Karintha, is an enigma to men. They are intensely drawn to her, knowing she will not reject them. However, she does not fulfill their desires in the way they expect:

She did not deny them, yet the fact was that they were denied. A sort of superstition crept into their consciousness of her being somehow above them. Being above them meant that she was not to be approached by anyone.

Men initially perceive their desire for Fern as sexual, but soon realize she represents something more profound. After a sexual encounter with her, a man may not feel sexually satisfied but feels compelled to protect her. Fern seems to embody an African spirituality and culture that the men pursuing her have lost. They fail to recognize what Fern truly represents and mistakenly assume it is purely sexual.

Avey serves as Fern's urban counterpart. She appears in part two and, like Fern, does not reject the narrator's desire for her, yet he feels unsatisfied. The narrator views Avey through a typical societal lens, interpreting her demeanor as laziness, apathy, and indifference.

Two male characters in the stories, Barlo from "Esther" and Dan Moore from "Box Seat," represent African spiritual and cultural roots. Barlo is depicted as a "clean-muscled, magnificent, black-skinned Negro." He is a drifter who arrives in town and stirs up attention with a religious vision about African-Americans. He enters a trance in the town center, specifically at a spot called the spittoon. Notably, the white men are oblivious to his presence and continue spitting their tobacco juice towards him. He then delivers the following sermon:

I saw a vision. I saw a man arise, an he was big an black an powerful... but his head was caught up in the clouds. An while he was agazin at th heavens, heart filled up with th Lord, some little white-ant biddies came an tied his feet to chains. They led him t th coast, they led him to th sea, they led him across th ocean an they didnt set him free. The old coast didnt miss him, an th new coast wasnt free, he left the oldcoast brothers, to give birth t you an me. O Lord, great God Almighty, t give birth t you and me.

Barlo's vision reflects his African ancestors who were brought to the New World in chains. This original African was not preoccupied with material things but was looking "at th heavens, heart filled up with th Lord," while white culture enslaved him for their own material gain. In the story, Barlo serves as a reminder to African-Americans of their origins. Similarly, Dan Moore sees himself fulfilling the same role. He proclaims, "I was born in a canefield. The hands of Jesus touched me. I am come to a sick world to heal it." Like others who resist being confined by white cultural constraints, Dan appears out of place and overly assertive.

Paul is the character who embodies the hope of overcoming racism. He is of mixed race, both black and white, but crucially, he is conscious of his black heritage while valuing his white culture. While in his dorm room in Chicago, Paul reflects on rural Georgia, the roots of his African-American culture, and the window of Bona, representing white urban culture. At the conclusion of "Bona and Paul," he expresses his appreciation for the beauty in both races:

I came back to tell you, brother, that white faces are petals of roses. That dark faces are petals of dusk. That I am going out and gather petals. That I am going out and know her whom I brought here with me to these Gardens which are purple like a bed of roses would be at dusk.

Paul believes that both races share the same essence and can coexist harmoniously, akin to "a bed of roses at dusk." In a letter to Waldo Frank, Toomer mentions that "Bona and Paul" represents a pivotal curve in the circular structure of Cane. This story marks the book's climax, as it is where Paul experiences an awakening.

The third section of Cane features the longest piece, a play called Kabnis. In this play, Toomer delves deeper into the themes introduced in the first two parts, using a new set of characters to further develop these ideas. In Kabnis, two characters—an old man named Father John and a woman named Carrie K.—embody the spiritual and cultural roots of Africa.

Father John, born into slavery, is very elderly and speaks infrequently. However, his words carry significant weight. Throughout the play, he often mutters the word "sin." At the end, he clearly addresses the "sin fixed upon the white folks," condemning them for "telling Jesus—lies" and for the sin they committed by distorting the Bible. Father John symbolizes the cultural heritage of African Americans, and other characters' well-being is reflected in how they respond to him. Carrie K. is similar to several characters in the first part, especially Fern. She is the most attentive to Father John, feeding and conversing with him. At the play's conclusion, she kneels before him, saying "Come Jesus," resulting in a divine image of both Carrie K. and Father John bathed in a ray of light.

The central figure in Kabnis is Ralph Kabnis, a light-skinned, northern-born African American working as a teacher in a southern rural school. Though he is a poet who admires the southern landscape's beauty, Ralph harbors a neurotic fear of rural life. His teaching quarters are in an isolated area, where he struggles to sleep, frightened by the nighttime sounds. He also has little respect for southern African-American church services, leaving one because he "couldn't stand the shouting." He notes that northern churches would halt such shouting if "they get so bad that the preacher has to stop his sermon for them." Despite his poetic desire to reconnect with his roots, his urban northern upbringing prevents him from doing so. His interactions with Father John reveal that Kabnis wishes to reject his racial and cultural heritage, claiming, "He ain't my past. My ancestors were Southern blue-bloods."

Other characters in the play have abandoned any attempt to understand the South or its history. They either blindly accept the social hierarchy or fully embrace it. Hanby, the superintendent of the school where Kabnis teaches, adopts a rather strict tone, stating, "the progress of the Negro race is jeopardized whenever the personal habits and examples set by its guides and mentors fall below the acknowledged and hard-won standard of its average member." Hanby adheres to the norms of white culture and dismisses Kabnis for smoking in his quarters. Fred Halsey, although capable of intellectual curiosity, chooses not to pursue it. As a skilled carpenter and repairman, he prefers manual labor over intellectual endeavors:

Give me th work and fair pay an I aint askin nothin better. Went over-seas an saw France; an I come back. Been up North; an I come back. Went t school; but there aint no books what got th feel t them of them there tools.

Similarly, Layman possesses intellectual potential but opts not to use it to change the dynamics and relationships in the South. Instead, he accepts lynchings and the subordination of black people to white people. Lewis acts as a foil to Kabnis. Like Kabnis, he is a light-skinned intellectual from the North, but he is more perceptive. He immediately recognizes the importance of Carrie K. upon meeting her, and he particularly understands the significance of Father John, whom he calls the "symbol, flesh, and spirit of the past." Ultimately, however, he also fails:

Lewis finds himself completely cut out. The glowing within him subsides. It is followed by a dead chill. Kabnis, Carrie, Stella, Halsey, Cora, the old man, the cellar, and the work-shop, the southern town descend upon him. Their pain is too intense. He cannot stand it. He bolts from the table. Leaps up the stairs. Plunges through the work-shop and out into the night.

The enigma and complexities of the southern African American experience prove to be too overwhelming for Lewis's Northern and urban cultural background.

Avey
Avey is a well-known girl in Washington, D.C. The young men on the street corner notice her visiting a man and discuss their desire to date her. She remains an enigma to them and to the story's narrator. He attempts to win her over by showcasing his athletic skills in basketball, swimming, and dancing, but she stays distant. Eventually, he gets a chance to kiss her on a ferry boat, hoping their relationship will advance, but she treats him like a child, cradling his head in her lap. Later, they become physically involved, but he attributes her lackluster response to laziness. The last time they are together, she falls into a deep sleep, suggesting she feels a unique comfort with him, allowing her to lower her guard for the first time in a long while.

King Barlo
King Barlo is a man Esther sees fall to the ground in a religious trance. The onlookers in the streets encourage him, but the white people remain wary: "Wall, y cant never tell what a nigger like King Barlo might be up t," remarks the sheriff. Shortly after, Barlo leaves town, and for years, Esther dreams of being with him. When he returns, she finds him drinking in a tavern with friends, no longer spiritual, and he mocks her.

There is also a "Barlo" mentioned in the story "Becky," who might be the same person. When he sees Becky's house has collapsed into rubble, likely with Becky underneath, Barlo throws his Bible onto the pile and walks away.

Becky
Becky is a white woman shunned by her neighbors in a small southern town because she has a child with a black man. Toomer does not reveal the father's identity. Both black and white residents reject Becky: the white people call her a "God-forsaken, insane white shameless wench," while the black people label her a "poor Catholic poor-white crazy woman." Despite her ostracism, some individuals from both groups help her build her house and provide food and supplies.

When her first son is five, Becky has another son by a black man. They grow up to be troubled, rebellious men, responding to both black and white people by shooting two men and leaving town, shouting, "Godam the white folks; godam the niggers," as they depart. After they leave, Becky's house eventually collapses with her inside.

Big Boy
See Tom Burwell

Tom Burwell
Tom Burwell is a black man deeply in love with Louisa in the story "Blood-Burning Moon." Many of the black townspeople are aware that Burwell is heading for trouble. They frequently remind each other that he has previously been sentenced to work on the chain gang for injuring people in knife fights. When Bob Stone, a white man who also has feelings for Louisa, attacks Tom with a knife, Tom kills Stone. Subsequently, the white townspeople hunt Tom down and burn him alive.

Carma
Carma is a formidable woman, "strong as any man," who drives a mule wagon. Her story is narrated as "the crudest melodrama." She has a husband named Bane, who is currently a prisoner on a chain gang. When Bane returned home from working out of town, he heard rumors about Carma having affairs with other men. Confronting her about these rumors, Carma fled into the cane field. Hearing a gunshot, Bane assumed that in her hysteria, she had killed herself. He gathered men from the neighborhood to search the field, where they found her lying. They carried her home and placed her on the couch, only to realize she was uninjured and had likely fired the gun to get his attention. Infuriated by the deception, Bane cut one of the search party members with a knife. Now, Bane remains on a chain gang, while Carma freely travels the country roads.

Esther Crane
One of the few female characters in the first section of the book not admired for her beauty, Esther becomes fascinated with a mysterious man named King Barlo, believing he plays a significant role in her destiny. At nine years old, Esther witnesses Barlo fall into a religious trance on the street, shouting phrases that sound Biblical while the crowd chants to encourage him. The entire town is captivated by his religious fervor, and after Barlo leaves town, Esther remembers him for years. The second part of Esther's story begins when she is sixteen. She dreams about elements from the day she saw Barlo: store windows lit by the sun appear on fire in her dream; people who spat tobacco juice on the ground now spit it onto the fire; and the fire department rescues a baby, as black as Barlo, and gives it to Esther for safekeeping. At twenty-two, while working at her father's grocery store, Esther reflects on an affair she had with a white boy and realizes that, despite her pale skin that could pass for white, she could never be accepted in white society. She concludes that she is in love with Barlo.

Five years later, Barlo returns to town in a flashy new car. Esther leaves her job at the store to go see him. She finds him at a friend's house, where a lively party is taking place. Esther tells Barlo she has come for him, but he merely laughs at her. A "coarse woman" with him believes Esther has a lot of nerve to come to a place like that and claim a man. She assumes Esther's arrogance comes from her pale skin. Feeling humiliated, Esther leaves.

Dorris
In the story "Theater," Dorris is a chorus girl who performs at a theater managed by John's brother. John works the dancers hard, making them rehearse and correcting their mistakes. While dancing, Dorris fantasizes about being in love with John. However, when she finishes, John is so engrossed in his own fantasy about her that he does not speak to her. She interprets this as a lack of interest and cries in the arms of her friend, Mame.

David Georgia
David is a field worker who cuts cane and boils its syrup. First mentioned in the "Becky" section as a man who brought her sugar sap, he reappears in the section "Blood-Burning Moon."

Bona Hale
Bona is a white girl who becomes infatuated with a mulatto boy named Paul. She is from the South, and he fears she cannot overcome the traditional racism of her society. Her story begins in a school gymnasium in Chicago, where she watches Paul and joins a basketball game to get closer to him, even though she had already been excused from participating. Paul's roommate, Art, arranges a date for them. While Art and his girlfriend walk ahead, arguing, Bona confesses her love for Paul, but he cannot reciprocate. He remains aloof throughout the date, and she leaves him just as he decides to open up to her.

Fred Halsey
Halsey is a friend of Kabnis. He owns a repair shop and takes pride in his work, tolerating the degrading attitude of whites when it benefits him. After Kabnis loses his teaching job, Halsey hires him, hoping to show him the value of working with his hands. However, Kabnis instead falls into drunkenness and ignorance.

Samuel Hanby
Samuel Hanby is the principal of the school where Kabnis teaches. He adopts an attitude of superiority with blacks but is subservient among whites.

John
John is the brother of the theater manager in "Theater." He harbors deep feelings for Dorris and often indulges in elaborate fantasies about their life together. Despite his affection, he is cautious, ensuring that none of the chorus girls, including Dorris, exploit his position to advance their careers. John maintains a tough exterior, convinced that Dorris has no romantic interest in him, although her main desire is to be with him. When he watches Dorris dance, he daydreams about being with her. However, Dorris misinterprets his blank expression during these moments as disinterest.

Ralph Kabnis
Kabnis is the protagonist of a novella at the book's conclusion, which is named after him. Similar to Toomer, he is an educated man from the North, now teaching in a Southern town. The locals treat him with a mix of kindness and suspicion, wary that he may consider himself superior. He experiences loneliness and fear while trying to sleep in the room provided by the school where he teaches, acutely aware of the surrounding stillness. Kabnis feels out of place in the South, disturbed by things like the noise of a chicken outside his door. Although the school enforces strict rules against smoking and drinking for teachers, he breaks these rules with his friends Halsey and Layman, discussing how black men should navigate the hostile social environment. The tales of lynchings shared by his friends terrify Kabnis, nearly driving him to madness, even as they assure him he has nothing to fear.

After losing his job at the school, Halsey employs Kabnis at his repair shop. Kabnis witnesses the harsh reality that black laborers face, being ordered around by white people without any regard for their well-being, which plunges him further into despair. One night, during a party with prostitutes in the shop's basement, Kabnis becomes drunk and lashes out at a silent old man sitting in the corner, accusing him of condemning the entire Negro race. The following morning, too intoxicated to stand or work, Kabnis realizes that the oppressive social environment in the South has drained him of the intelligence and kindness he once possessed.

Karintha
Karintha, the central figure in the book's opening piece, establishes the mood for the subsequent narrative. Much of the initial section revolves around men desiring women, and Karintha is a girl who captivates men with her beauty from a young age. Even in her early childhood, when she is too young for sexual relations, men gaze at her in awe and overlook her flaws due to their enchantment with her appearance. For instance, "Even the preacher, who caught her at mischief, told himself that she was as innocent as a lovely November cotton flower."

Growing up in a small, two-room house, Karintha is exposed early on to the sexuality of her parents, who shared the same room with her. As she becomes sexually active with men, they approach her with money, suggesting that she might have resorted to using her beauty in a manner akin to prostitution. She gives birth to a baby in the woods, and the text suggests that she buried the child beneath a blanket of pine needles before returning home.

Louisa
Louisa finds herself the object of affection for two men. She works for the family of Bob Stone, a white man who is attracted to her, and she reciprocates his feelings. However, she is also drawn to Tom Burwell, a black man.

Individually, neither held any extraordinary significance. But somehow, when her eyes drifted vacantly towards the rising moon, their images blurred together, igniting a peculiar stir within her.

Although she has feelings for both, each man struggles to accept her attraction to the other. When Stone confronts Burwell, he is provoked into a fight and ends up being killed. Subsequently, Burwell is lynched by an enraged white mob. Louisa's story unfolds in the section titled "Blood-Burning Moon."

Dan Moore
Dan is a key character in the story "Box Seat." He hails from the South, born in a cane field, and possesses a violent and distrustful disposition. When he visits Muriel, the girl he admires, he speaks about life as though it must be filled with suffering and confusion, and he is perplexed when she perceives it differently. He tells her,

Your aim is wrong. There is no such thing as happiness. Life intertwines joy and pain, beauty and ugliness, in such a manner that no one can separate them.

Desperate for Muriel's affection, he attempts to force himself on her, only to be stopped by her landlady. That night at the theater, Dan appears to keep an eye on Muriel. He perceives her as a prisoner of societal norms. Restless and agitated, he disturbs those around him. When a performer sings to Muriel from the stage below her box, Dan becomes highly agitated and shouts, "JESUS WAS A LEPER!" Upon leaving the performance, he steps on a man's toes, leading to a shoving match. The man and Dan head to the alley to fight, but once there, Dan forgets why he is there and wanders away.

Muriel
Muriel is a schoolteacher in the story "Box Seat." She resides in a boarding house managed by her landlady, Mrs. Pribby. Dan Moore, her suitor, views Muriel's structured life and believes she is repressed, constrained by societal expectations. When Dan becomes overly physical with her in the boarding house's living room, Mrs. Pribby, in the adjacent room, makes noise to remind them of her presence:

Muriel focuses on her reflection. She smooths her dress and adjusts her skirt, becoming prim and composed.

Later, Muriel attends the theater with her friend Bernice. They sit in a cramped box seat. During the performance, a boxing dwarf sings a song to Muriel and offers her a rose, prompting Dan to jump up and shout, leaving Muriel embarrassed by his outburst.

Paul
Paul, a mulatto from Georgia residing in Chicago, feels uneasy about living among white people while passing as white. When Bona, a white girl, courts him by engaging him in a competitive basketball game and then arranging a date through friends, Paul faces the dilemma of whether to fully integrate into white society. They go to dinner and a dance, but his cold demeanor angers her. As they leave the dance, Paul notices a knowing look on the face of a dark-skinned black doorman and stops to correct the man's mistaken impression. "I came back to tell you, to shake your hand, and tell you that you are wrong," he explains. "That something beautiful is going to happen.…" However, when he finishes speaking to the doorman, he turns to find that Bona has left.

Rhobert
The first character in the second section, Rhobert, is symbolically depicted as wearing a house. He has twisted legs from childhood rickets, but he is also described as strong for bearing the weight of the house on his shoulders.

Fernie Mae Rosen
Fern is the daughter of a black mother and a Jewish father. In the story bearing her name, she is portrayed as sexually attractive yet emotionally cold:

Men observed her eyes and deceived themselves. Fern's eyes suggested she was easy. When she was younger, a few men were with her, but they found no satisfaction.

Eventually, she becomes so detached from sexuality that "she became a virgin."

The narrator of Fern's tale, captivated by her beauty, confidently approaches her while she is with her family and invites her for a walk in the cane fields. During their walk, he embraces her, and she experiences a profound religious revelation that overwhelms her:

Her body was tormented by something it could not release. Like boiling sap, it surged through her arms and fingers until she shook them as if they were on fire.

Overcome by intense emotion, she faints in the field. Afterwards, the townspeople who had vowed to protect Fern issue threats against the narrator, prompting him to leave for the North shortly after.

Bob Stone
Bob Stone is the white man whose family employs Louisa in "Blood-Burning Moon." He is in love with her but conflicted because she is black. He already struggles with low self-esteem due to his family's diminished social status, and he fears further disgrace if his relationship with a black woman becomes known. Despite this, he is jealous of Tom Burwell, who is also seeing Louisa, and he feels insecure about losing her to Burwell. In a confrontation, he attacks Burwell with a knife, but Burwell, an expert knife fighter, cuts Bob's throat.