Male Isolation in Jean Toomer's "Cane"

Paper Summary:

This paper reviews Jean Toomer's "Cane", including some powerful vignettes, which highlight just how damaging it can be for men when they do not understand and appreciate women as whole, three-dimensional beings. The paper stresses that each of the central male characters in Toomer's vignettes actually, themselves, create a distance and isolation from the very "thing" they obsess about: getting close to women. The author believes that looking at each of Toomer's vignettes and seeing how each of the male characters creates his own isolation by not seeing the whole woman clearly opens up new questions about the author himself. Maybe Toomer perceives women as flatly as some of his fictionalized male counterparts.

From the Paper:

"The anonymous "young men" and "old men" in "Karintha" all long in vain to have the lovely young beauty whose "skin is like dusk, when the sun goes down." Karintha is put on a pedestal, her idyllic beauty allowing men to project onto her all the ideals associated with beauty, like goodness and innocence. They ignore any aspect of her personality which doesn't fit with their idea of Karintha; her mischievousness, even her proclivity for cruelty. The men adore Karintha blindly, faun over her and give her money, but instead of making her love them, they cause the opposite affect. We are told that Karintha "has contempt for them." "

More papers on Male Isolation in Jean Toomer's "Cane":

• Analytical Essay # 56408 : "Jean Toomer's "Cane"
• Book Review # 140166 : "Isolation in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
• Comparison Essay # 140902 : "Isolation in Two Short Stories"

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