I thought the first section of Cane was interesting. Some of the readings I was really confused about but most of them I found very interesting. I thought "Song of the Sun" and "Georgia Dusk" were similar in that they both were discussing the Negro songs and how they might be broken and weary in the day they come alive at night. In "Song of the Sun" he writes "for htough the sun is setting on A song-lit race of slaves, it has not set."
I also noticed the main characters of the story were tragic women. All them had something horrible happen to them and they all had a deep sadness and a sense of being outcasted."Carma" was one of favorites and also confusing to me. I wasn't quite sure I understood the ending but I loved the writing style. "Words, like corkscrews, wormed to her strength" was a great line. "Fern" was also a perplexing story which left a feeling of sadness and desperation with the reader. I think that Cane speaks to a lot of people about a race truly torn apart. There are these private portraits of people in absolute desperation and hopelessness and never a solid happy-ending conclusion.
6 comments:
I also liked the reading from cane but the long ones such as Becky, Fern, and Carma I did not understand. I didn't know if we were suppose to read it as a poem or if these were actually stories of actual people that went through these ordeals. I think you are right though they do show just how a race is truly torn apart.
I agree, I think that each of the texts that we have read so far really show how torn apart the African race was/is, but it also shows how torn the white race was/is by what is going on.
Toomer seems to be writing more about real people. Johnson seemed to be writing about real people also, but because he lacked giving the characters a name the story lacked the sense of connection and reality, for me anyway. Toomer gives his characters real names, which allows you to relate better and think of them as real people who endured real life events.
I still am wondering why Cane uses as many women as he does in his stories and poetry. I understand the concepts of them, but wonder why he thinks they are important to write about. I wonder if its because it was something that stood out to him during the time he wrote these poems and stories, or maybe he thinks women are interesting and easy to relate to nature. He uses nature in almost all of his stories and poems and uses items in nature to describe women.
I admire you for finding more clarity in the poety than in the prose in "Cane." I think that even when poems are understandable, I tend to feel intimidated by them simply because they're poems. I do agree with you that one piece of prose -- Fern -- baffled me. I thought the language was beautiful, but the story was so fragmented that I could barely even trace Fern's personal story. I hope that we get to discuss Fern's story in particular in class becuase I thought that her's was one of the most interesting but least relatable story so far.
I also liked the reading about cane even though it was hard to understand sometimes. i also noticed that in the end of the story something always happened to the women i wondered about that. The one that i thought was the most interesting was the one about Becky you never thought that the blacks would turn there backs on her. that was the worst ending i think. but overall good poems or stories.
I agree that black female protagonists leading extremely difficult lives is a common motif in Toomer's work. He seems to be very interested in women who have been pushed to the margins of society by race and social relations in the rural south: whether it be through interracial relationships, religious experiences, etc.
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