SOURCE: “The Women in Cane,” in College Language Association Journal, Vol. 14, No. 3, March, 1971, pp. 259-73.

In the following essay, Chase explores Toomer's complex portrayal of women in Cane, maintaining of his female characters that: “Perhaps they are all the same woman, archetypal woman, all wearing different faces, but each possessing an identifiable aspect of womanhood.”

If the fabric of Cane is the life essence and its meaning behind absurdity, then Toomer's women characters are the threads which weave Cane together. Like the form in which Toomer chose to express himself, his women characters are no less rare and sensual. Perhaps they are all the same woman, archetypal woman, all wearing different faces, but each possessing an identifiable aspect of womanhood. Each is strange, yet real; each wears a protective mask of indifference; each is as capable of love as well as lust; and each is guilty of or...