Jean Toomer 's Literary Masterpiece Cane

The struggles of being an African American is not very well understood by the majority of the population. For hundreds of years, there every day challenges – that privilege people would not bad – have become their own normal. Many authors have taken it upon themselves to write about their experiences and to educate the public. They use different types of literary devices to reflect their true intentions. In James Baldwin‘s “Notes of a Native Son” and Brent Staples’ “Just Walk On By: Black Men and Public Spaces,” the authors use language and punctuation to show their true emotion behind their words. The combination of syntax and diction allows Baldwin to develop his angry and bitter tone, in addition to Staples’ contrasting light-hearted tone.

Among the critical responses to Home to Harlem, W.E.B. Du Bois’s criticism of Claude McKay’s text seemingly speaks from an essentialist perspective. Du Bois simply found that McKay’s representation of black culture within his novel reproduced stereotypical and crude images which white audiences desired in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance. In response to Du Bois, McKay argued that the novel was created for a black audience, but, to delve even deeper outside of Claude McKay’s views, it could be argued that Home to Harlem does not produce a single identity at all. Rather, Home to Harlem’s perpetual mobility and movement invests in the idea of black “identity as ‘production’” rather than as the exhibition of a “collective ‘one true self’”

Black No More and “The Negro Art Hokum” give important insight into how George Schulyer views race and identity, the importance of essences, and his stance on racial anti-essentialism. Black No More does clearly challenge Schulyer’s ideas in his essay that race in the way it is construed in the U.S. is not a meaningful essential part of who a person is because although our main protagonist Max Disher was able to be white in appearance thus being able to fit into white society, in essence he was still a black man and found his social kinship with members of Harlem’s black community. Essence makes a person who they are in conjunction with their physical racial attributes. In some cases who a character is on the inside does not always match up with their outward appearance, as in Black No More with Disher’s white skin and his black mentality.

Toomer is a controversial literary and cultural figure who gets criticized by people for rejecting his race. He is praised by others for the confines of rigid ethnic distinctions. Toomer’s rejection of race drew sharp criticism from many people, especially from members of the African American community. They found him being self- loathing rather than racial unification (Claypool 2). Toomer has been criticized for failing to write about the experience after Cane. Many people said he denied his African American heritage out of shame and cowardice (Claypool 4). Many critics have credited his work with ushering in the Harlem Renaissance noting the book’s representations of African American characters and culture. Others have located it within the lost generation owing to its literary experimentation, romantic primitivism, and its critiques of postwar values (Jones 3). The analysis of Cane contains Toomer denying his racial heritage. This book also contains the extracts from most of the important early Cane criticism (Golding 3).

This paper will illustrate how the Harlem Renaissance assisted the African-American intellectual community to gain acceptance in mainstream America and prompted the writing of the book The Invisible Man, written by Ralph Ellison. Throughout this paper, I will examine the social context and climate of Ellison’s work. This paper will focus on the experience of a young African American man who claims to be invisible. However, the young man argues that his invisibility is not due to his wish but arises from society’s failure to notice him. This young man who is also educated captures his frustrations and struggles in order to survive in a predominantly racist society. Additionally, this paper will illustrate how the Harlem Renaissance afforded African-American artists like Ellison to provide an extraordinary opportunity for the African- American community to recall their experiences in a not so embracing America where deeply entrenched racism had been woven into the fabric of American society (Callahan, 2004).

The lynching of Mary Turner is quite similar to the one Mame Lamkins experiences in “Kabnis.” There were mere changes Toomer did in retelling the Turner’s story, such as the “baby being impaled to a tree rather than ground underfoot (161). Impaling a person to a tree is a common trope regarding the lynchings that were occurring during that time. Regardless of the minor difference Turner’s real lynching story is similar to Lamkins’s in Cane, proving that Toomer acknowledged what was occurring in the South prior to his visit in 1921, and he based Lamkins on a real historic

Each part of the United States had their different standpoints towards blacks and the leaders of the Harlem Renaissance were devoted to crushing the negative attitudes placed upon the Afro-Americans. During this time race was a social construct. Everyday lives were affected by skin color whether people were aware or not. For years African Americans were shunned into a classification that viewed their society as less than human. Toomer’s novel shows the ability race has to affect and intersect different aspects and domains of society and life, as well as dismantle it. Jean Toomer created this piece of art for a reason. Cane suggests that the social construct created upon race should be avoided, for people of all different social classes have equal potential for success.

Born on December 26 1894, Jean Toomer was an accomplished poet, and novelist during the time of the harlem renaissance. His first book was published in 1923, titled Cane. Throughout the course of his life, he wrote a total of 21 poems, and 6 books. HIs full name was actually Nathan Pinchback Toomer, after his father, who decamped after his birth. Toomer was then raised by his mother, with some support from his grandparents. Nathan’s grandfather, Pinckney Pinchback referred to him as “Eugine“ instead of his father’s name as a way of showing disrespect to him for abandoning his family. Toomer’s family also had a European lineage, so growing up he moved between all-white and all-black schools. When he became an adult, he wasn’t very open about his

Amongst the judgmental stares of the audience that has bestowed an image of pathetic vulnerability upon the dancer, the poem’s speaker emerges to provide a portrait of the dancer that is much less lascivious, acknowledging that “Her voice was like the sound of blended flutes / Blown by black players upon a picnic day” (3-4). The sudden juxtaposition of a “picnic day” vis-a-vis a crowded night-club highlights the speakers attempt to remove the sexualized image of the dancer with the intent of identifying her noble power as a member of the black community. The elegance of the dancer, recognized by her soft voice, is affirmed by the speaker’s specific mention of “black players,” displaying black heritage as containing multi-faceted artistic potential. While the poem begins with a dehumanizing portrayal of the dancer, the speaker successfully reformulates the identity of the dancer into a component of a larger black tradition.

The Harlem Renaissance was a period that started in the early 1920’s in which the concept of “the Negro” was intended to be changed (History.com). This period witnessed the thrive of African American art. White stereotypes had influenced not only the way African Americans were perceived in society but also their relationship between themselves and others. Participants like Gwendolyn Bennett, Langston Hughes, Paul Lawrence Dunbar and W.E.B. Du Bois were some of many authors of creative pieces that reflected their points of views. Like George Hutchinson writes in his article, The Harlem Renaissance brought many African Americans from South to North which helped the rise of literacy and the creation of organizations dedicated to promoting African American civil rights that resulted in the uplift of the race and the availability of socioeconomic opportunities (1). The distinctive expression through things like poetry and music during the Harlem Renaissance reflected the reality and experiences black people were going through. This essay is going to focus on the relationship between poetry, politics and representation while relying on the poem “We Wear the Mark” by Paul Lawrence Dunbar. At the same time, this paper will be supported with works from Langston Hughes, Alain Locke and W.E.B. Dubois.

During The Harlem Renaissance, artists and writers of the time period would express themselves through the experiences that they gain from the streets of Harlem. Claude McKay’s writings from the Harlem Renaissance demonstrates life during that time period by showing the Renaissance as “defined, and defied the boundaries of The Harlem Renaissance.”

The early 1900s was a very challenging time for Negroes especially young women who developed issues in regards to their identities. Their concerns stemmed from their skin colors. Either they were fair skinned due mixed heritage or just dark skinned. Young African American women experienced issues with racial identity which caused them to be in a constant struggle that prohibits them from loving themselves and the skin they are in. The purpose of this paper is to examine those issues in the context of selected creative literature. I will be discussing the various aspects of them and to aid in my analysis, I will be utilizing the works of Nella Larsen from The Norton Anthology of African American Literature, Jessie Bennett Redmond Fauset,

Jean Toomer was born on December 26, 1894 to Nina Pinchback, and Nathan Toomer. He was born with the name Nathan Pinchback Toomer, but it was later changed to Eugene Toomer. Toomer’s grandfather Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback was born a free Negro to a white planter and a mulatto slave. Jean Toomer admired his grandfather, who served in the army during the Civil War, and later became governor of Louisiana. His grandfather, like Toomer, was able to easily pass for black or white. Throughout Jean Toomer’s life, he struggled with his identity. As he was able to pass as white, he would sometimes deny the fact that he was white. Rudolph P. Byrd and Henry Louis Gates Jr. write in “The Emergence and Passing of Jean Toomer” and in this piece they

The essay The New Negro by Alain Locke’s defines what Locke believes to be the “Old Negro and the “New Negro. This paper will compare and contrasts Marcus Garvey The Future as I See it and Langston Hughes various poems on why Locke would have characterized them as either Old Negroes, New Negroes, or both. I believe Locke, Garvey , Hughes were determined to see Blacks succeed. Each writer expresses their idea in their own unique way, but they all wanted freedom, equality, and respect.

In 1925, philosopher and leading black intellectual Alain Locke published the short essay The New Negro. In this essay, Locke describes the contemporary conditions of black Americans, and discusses the trajectory and potential of black culture to affect global change in its historical moment (Locke 47). Locke wrote this essay in the midst of the Harlem Renaissance, a period in which black artists and intellectuals sought to reconceptualize black lives apart from the stereotypes and racist portrayals of prior decades (Hutchinson). The New Negro and the discourse around Locke’s work attempted to push forth a bold project: that of reshaping the cultural identity of black America with respect to the existent structures of American culture, as