Nathan Eugene "Jean" Toomer was a steadfast humanist who was uncertain of his ethnic makeup yet identified solidly with black themes. He once said, "I am of no particular race. I am of the human race, a man at large in the human world, preparing a new race." His literary work Cane, features characters of uncertain and varying shades of skin color. Especially in the first section of Cane, in which there are three sections, Toomer contrasts the coloring of Southern Afro-American women. For example, Fern's face is cream-colored and her upper lip is described as creamy brown, "her nose is aquiline, Semitic" (16) suggesting that she is of mixed race. The nose is considered by some an important racial index. Esther's face is chalk-white and she "looks like a little white child . . ." (22). Many other women in the stories are described accroding to their color, or shade of color. Becky is the white woman who had two mixed sons. "White or colored? No one knew, and least of all themselves" (8). As shown throughout Cane, Toomer is very concerned aboout the degrees of color of people. This could be a reflection of his own confusion and uncertainty about his own ethnic makeup, and ultimately his identity.
Emily Carter
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