Jean Toomer's Reapers

Jean Toomer’s Cane The first section of Cane by Jean Toomer contains a collection of poems and short stories. These poems and short stories are all different but they are all unified and linked to the title of the book, Cane. It is evident that they took place at a time when the black race was enslaved and working in the cane and cotton fields. All of these works are referenced to the cane …

…the poems are about the work that needed to be done in the cane fields; some are about hope, hope that the black race would someday not have to work these fields. Toomer repeated his ideas from poem to poem and story to story to create a smooth flow from one to the next. It gives the reader the sense that this is one complete work and they are all linked by this common thread.