Representations of "The New Negro" in Jean Toomer's Cane

Jean Toomer's Cane illustrates the return of the African-American community and culture to its southern origins in search of its heritage and identity. Published in 1923, the book features a collection of fictional vignettes that include sketches, poems and stories on Black rural and urban life in the South.

With his rich imagery and impressionistic style, he presents several of the profound ideas surrounding African-American character and experience during the Harlem Renaissance. Specifically, in sketches of "Karintha," "Carma" and "Rhobert," Toomer plays out particular representations of the "New Negro" and discusses the segregation that developed during these years of African-American rebirth in the North.

In his opening sketch of "Karintha," Toomer challenges the concept of both the "New Negro" and segregation. Detailing the maturation of Karintha, Toomer provides a distinct connection between the protagonist's life and the rise of the "New Negro" during the Harlem Renaissance.

The sketch initially describes an intense admiration and longing that young men have for Karintha: "Men had always wanted her, this Karintha, even as a child, Karintha carrying beauty, perfect as dusk when the sun goes down" (1).

The awe that men had for Karintha corresponds with a similar respect that African Americans had for the upstanding, prominent White man during the Harlem Renaissance. This is what ultimately compelled them to initiate the movement that coincided with this notion of the "New Negro."

At that moment in history, things quickly changed for African Americans and their identity. All across the United States, Blacks were demonstrating a desire to climb the socio-economic ladder and reach the same status that many White communities had attained.

For that reason, African Americans were patient in waiting for their day of fortunate to finally come. Similarly, that sort of fame and approbation began at an early age of 12 for Karintha, when she "was a wild flash that told the other folks just what it was to live" (1).

However, Toomer soon after explains that even Karintha, representing the White man as the ideal model for all of society, has imperfections: "She stoned the cows, and beat her dog, and fought the other children" (1).

But the reputation that Karintha carries with her had no one believing of such acts, because most understood her to be an innocent, young girl. Her youth and innocence, however, didn't remain with her much longer after "her bidding" with a small boy.

For many Black males searching for an identity and wealth during this significant period in African-American history, mating with women like Karintha represented an aspiration they hoped to achieve. While men remain stunned by her beauty and perfection as she slowly matures into a full-grown woman, her multiple marriages only make her detest the men she once loved more and more.

Somehow, though, for one reason or another, Karintha still continues to have pleasurable moments with these men.

That, in large part, is due to her physical beauty and aurora of perfection, which attracted men to offer Karintha their strongest efforts in hopes of winning her over: "Young men run stills to make her money. Young men go to the big cities and run on the road. Young go away to college. They all want to bring her money. These are the young men who thought that all they had to do was to count time" (2).

In each of these early scenes, Toomer represents the perseverance and determination that young, Black men demonstrated during their the quest to achieve higher societal status as the "New Negro" during the Harlem Renaissance.

Meanwhile, Karintha, on the other hand, reveals a lack of responsibility and concern for her newborn baby by burning it in a nearby sawmill. With this scene, Toomer rather challenges the idea of the "New Negro," for Whites were not ever known to commit such criminal and heinous acts.

And though Toomer portrays Karina for much of the vignette as a wonderful, flawless woman, he really shows the reader that she is no different from the men who held the highest admiration for her.

Similarly, in his later sketch of Carma, Toomer returns to the idea of the "New Negro" in regard to the segregation that took place prior to the Harlem Renaissance. From Toomer's description, Carma, like Karintha, seems to have an admirable and unique appearance.

In fact, the author makes a point to mention that she is as "strong as any man" (10). That sort of comparison was characteristic of the "New Negro," which prided himself on self-liberation, and ultimately, a determination to achieve the American Dream.

But even more like Karintha, Carma fails to stay true to the "New Negro" identity by demonstrating similar acts of irresponsibility. Her deviant actions, instead, create a sense of segregation between Carma and her husband's gang, and as Bane learns more about her misbehaviors, he attempts to beat her with his fists and show off his manhood.

Carma, however, remains strong with her words before rushing out of the house, grabbing a gun and heading for the cane fields in the middle of nightfall.

Through it all, Toomer presents a dramatic transformation in Bane's character as a result of Carma's misbehavior: "Bane was afraid to follow till he heard the gun go off. Then he wasted half an hour gathering the neighbor men. They met in the road where lamp-light showed tracks dissolving in the loose earth about the cane. The search began" (11).

Like his portrayal of Karintha, Toomer challenges the idea of the "New Negro" by showing how quickly Bane loses his manhood after being afraid to run after Carma. Because Bane couldn't handle his own problems independently, he gathers the neighborhood men to help search for his wife.

Once again, Toomer brings up this African-American theme of manhood once Bane realizes that one of the gang members who stumbled over his wife in the cane stalk is the same man with the same sort of immorality and deceit: "Slowly, then like a flash, Bane came to know that the shot she fired, with averted head, was aimed to whistle like a dying hornet through the cane. Twice deceived, and one deception proved the other. His head went off. Slashed one of the men who'd helped, the man who'd stumbled over her. Now' he's in the gang" (11).

Carma's own deceit strays away from the sincere and strong character of "New Negro," and therefore, her inability to stand up to her husband and deliver the corrupt truths of her life shows her inferiority and frailty.

Later, in his figurative, yet realistic sketch of "Rhobert," Toomer also challenges the notions of the "New Negro" and segregation. Although Toomer includes a sense of racial uncertainty, he personifies the general ideas of the "New Negro" and segregation in his depiction of the protagonist.

When he first introduces Rhobert to the reader, Toomer describes his subject with irrational, metaphorical imagery: "Rhobert wears a house, like a monstrous diver's helmet, on his head [...] He is way down. He is sinking. His house is a dead thing that weights him down [...] Life is a murky, wiggling, microscopic water that compresses him" (40).

Toomer goes on to reveal that this burden of a "house" drops Rhobert into depression, and he thinks he can't leave his house, and if he did, it would compress his helmet and crush it the minute that he pulled his head out (40).

Unlike the idea of the "New Negro" developed during the Harlem Renaissance, Rhobert's dream to achieve superior success in American society fails miserably due to his rickets.

His failure in the end to compete with the White man leads him to suffer further setbacks, regarding his identity and sense of manhood, and his depression ultimately takes over his body and mind as he loses responsibility for his family: "And he cares not two straws as to whether or not he will ever see his wife and children again. Many a time he's seen them drown in his dreams and has kicked about joyously in the mud for days after. One thing about him goes straight to the heart" (40).

Lastly, Toomer defies the concept of the "New Negro" as well as segregation through Rhobert's self-exclusion and his apathy for his wife and children. His life struggle as a "banty-bowed, shaky, ricket-legged man," furthermore, leads him to generate callous and rather cold-hearted thoughts. Toomer reveals this significant change in Rhobert's life as he loses his manhood.

But when Rhobert finally passes away, his perseverance to live on does earn him praise: "Soon people will be looking at him and calling him a strong man. No doubt he is for one who has had rickets. Lets give it to him. Lets call him great when the water shall have been all drawn off. Lets build a monument and set it in the ooze where he goes down" (40-41).

Like many African Americans who fought to live in a primarily White-dominated American society during the Harlem Renaissance, Toomer fleshes out this idea of the "New Negro" through Rhobert's perseverance in each of these final segments. And because of his fight and valiant effort to survive, Rhobert's life becomes cherished by all those who knew him.

Through all this, both Rhobert's cowardice and later his determination can be seen as representations of the "The New Negro" overcoming a past of segregation.

Jean Toomer's assorted sketches in Cane present instances and contradictions of the prominent ideas originated during the Harlem Renaissance. He achieves this approach through his representations of the "New Negro" and instances of segregation as he narrates the return of African Americans to the urban and rural South.

As can be seen in his sketches of "Karintha," "Carma" and "Rhobert," Toomer portrays his characters in a similar way to show both their perseverance and determination as well as their irresponsibility and cowardice.