Jean Toomer was a man of no racial boundaries which enabled
him to create his masterpiece: Cane
Reading Cane was like reading a blog, kind of. It was
fragmented, and I'm not entirely sure if all of it connects, but there are a
few characters threaded into multiple stories if you pay attention closely.
One story that I want to reflect on is Becky.
Becky struck me as incredible. One of the first things I
noticed, and always notice in southern gothic literature, is the utilization of
religion. In this particular story it's Catholicism. It's always uncomfortable
to read about Catholicism in books and stories set in the gothic period because
how it was practiced then is not the same way we are trying to practice it now.
Like everything else in life, Catholicism has evolved. It is even more
uncomfortable to discuss Catholicism, or religion in general, during class
because most of the students either aren't practicing a religion, don't care,
or already don't like what I have to say about it- or, don't agree with me
before I even state my case. BUT, we are not here to be comfortable, so I'm
okay with it all.
Becky, right at the beginning, is this kind of poetry.
Throughout Cane there's a lot of poetry mixed in with prose- which I find
incredibly interesting, and I have easily come to love. I just really like how
sometimes you can simplify the message that is buried in prose by a few short
lines of poetry. Also, noticing that for Becky, the same poetry is repeated at
the very end; I think this ties up the story quite nicely.
Becky is introduced as a white, Catholic woman who has a
black son. Since she is now by default apart of the black and white race, both
the races come together in this small town to build her a cabin. This is all
good, but right after they finish saying that they've sheltered and fed her and
her baby, it says they "pray secretly to God who'd put His cross upon her
and cast her out." Reading this a first time, I thought that the people of
the town were asking God to cast her out, like kill her, but re-reading I see
that the people felt as though God had cursed her with a black son. This, to
me, doesn't make a whole lot of sense. After all, it was her actions (I am assuming)
that created her baby?
The part I do have a problem with is the people of the town,
both blacks and whites, casting her out after her son is born. It isn't very
"Catholic" of any of them to cast out a single woman who just birthed
a child and has no place to go. What confuses me even more is that after Becky
is given a place to live and care for her (now) babies, the townspeople toss
her food and prayers, some even approaching her house to deliver meals and
snuff. I feel like if anyone wanted to define the term "Backwards
Catholic" this is what it'd be. The townspeople came together as one
(which was incredible at this time period), only to cast her out months later.
Then, once she was settled elsewhere, they began to show her compassion once
more. This was an act of treating someone as a burden. And this is why people
have such a problem with a person who identifies as a Catholic. Catholics are
known for saying one thing and doing the other; the Bible says love one another
as you love yourself, yet these people couldn't managed to do that for more
than 5 seconds.
One of the most important parts in this story is when the
townspeople go back and forth on whether or not they should take in Becky's
boys, even though they had cast her out solely because of him. This could have
possibly been the turning point for the townspeople; here they could have come
to the understanding that you "hate the sin, not the sinner." Little
did they know that Becky's sin to have children out of wedlock and interracially
(a sin to them) was on the same level as any of their sins. Of course the
reason this did not work out was because the boys got wind of it and shot two
of the townsmen. This nearly made me laugh! I'm not sure what the townspeople
expected? How could you cast out a mother and her sons, have her fend for
herself in a shack between who-knows-where and a train, and then expect the
boys to come forth with their arms open!? It's nearly shocking!
Continuing with the bizarre townspeople, they actually
started to bring her food, etc. again!? Which, in their defense does seem like
an appropriate way to wave a white flag; however, Becky, whether it was
actually her in the flesh, or her in spirit, did not appreciate it. Sticking
with the southern gothic aesthetic, I'm going to choose to believe that it was
Becky's spirit that was haunting that shack. I'm not certain when she would
have died, but it does seem too coincidental that the shack fell to the ground
as townspeople began to show up. This instance is so similar to Poe's writing
in, "The Fall of the House of Usher;" when Roderick's sister scares
him to death and the entire house splits down the middle and crumbles.
HOW COOL IS THAT? The settings of each story crumble beneath
itself as to say- it is over, it is done, and there is nothing left.
~It is the equivalent of executing a bomb-ass speech and
then dropping the mic after you prove your point ~
One last thing- when the townspeople watched the shack
crumble, the one thing these people did was throw a Bible on top of the rubble.
Yes, because throwing a Bible on top of a problem will solve it... they go on
to say that "no one has ever touched it." This is disturbing; the
absolute least the townspeople could have done was pray and mourn for the loss
of a woman and her sons that they treated so poorly. Instead they basically
threw a rug on top of it and moved on with their day.
