Toomer’s Cane, published in 1923, is a collection vignettes and poems divided into three sections. Cane has served a particularly integral role in African-American literature, as it simultaneously presents the black southern rural experience and the black northern urban experience. Throughout Cane, Toomer utilizes several themes in an attempt to reconcile a connection between the two. Cane examines issues of race on several different levels. Primarily, Toomer displays how blacks are treated in American society. In the south, elements of danger are always present. The character Becky exhibits this, as she is rejected by both blacks and whites for having crossed the color line by sleeping with a black man. Ramifications of racial tensions are further displayed by the demise of character Tom Burwell, who is immediately killed by a white mob after an altercation with a white man, Bob Stone. Toomer uses Burwell and Stone to display the racial barriers created by bigotry; these barriers ultimately prevent interpersonal relationships from forming successfully. In addition to hostilities between blacks and whites, Cane examines racism that exists within the black community alone. Characters Bona and Paul are ultimately driven apart, as Paul is unable to acknowledge his identity as a black man. The first section of Cane is dedicated to isolated portraits of single women and society’s attitudes toward them. Karintha is an obscure figure who is only presented in the context of her physical attractiveness. Throughout her existence, she is perceived by men as a sexual object. Similarly, Fern entrances the narrator of her story, but he does not indicate any interest in understanding why. Burwell and Stone fight over Louisa to the point of death, but little is ever said about who Louisa really is. On the other hand, Toomer ends Cane with Carrie. K, who foils the women presented in the first section by appearing enlightened and levelheaded. Anoth