Intersection of Class, Race, Gender and Sexuality in Cane

In Jean Toomer’s novel, Cane, female sexuality plays an integral role in the development of virtually all of the female characters.  His concentration on these female characters and their relationship to sexuality evoke a variety of critical interpretations, not only of the text, but of the author himself.  It is evident that Toomer is preoccupied with women and sex throughout Cane; however this concentration upon women’s sexuality symbolizes a larger metaphorical statement on the social and economic status of African-Americans during the post-reconstruction era in the United States.  It can be argued that Toomer’s representation of females is one dimensionally focused on sex and sexuality, yet there is undeniably some greater project at hand churning beneath the surface of these representations.    Toomer is utilizing the sexuality, conduct, and societal perceptions of these women in order to weave together a complex web of relationships between these characters and their sexuality and the way in which society views these relationships.  Within this web, one discovers that class, as well as race and gender roles, duly affects the way in which these characters’ relationship to sex and men are formed, as well as the way that society reacts to them.