A Look at the Character Karintha in Jean Toomer's Cane

A Look at the Character Karintha in Jean Toomer's Cane

Jean Toomer's Cane begins with a vignette entitled "Karintha" about a young woman who grows up too quickly. The first paragraph tell us that "men had always wanted her, this Karintha, even as child...." From the description that is presented, it appears that she was always beautiful and desirous to men, even when she was a mere child. Men of all ages wanted her from the time she was young - the young men couldn't wait until she was old enough to court, while the old men wished they could get younger instead of older as time went by so that they might have a chance with Karintha.

The final sentence of the first paragraph intrigued me, saying that "this interest of the male, who wishes to ripen a growing thing too soon, could mean no good to her [Karintha]." I think that this is Toomer's way of emphasizing to his audience that what the men were doing was very selfish on their part. These men did not really care about Karintha the child or Karintha the future young woman. All they cared about was the possibility of a conquest; even if the victim would be young, at least she would be beautiful. Even those younger men who might have had a chance with her many years in the future did not have the patience to wait. Instead they "danced with her at frolics" when they should have been spending their time with women in their own age group. There was not any concern for Karintha, just for the needs and desires of these men, who should have had enough self-control that this would not have even been an issue. Instead of waiting for Karintha to develop from a child to an adult, these men felt the need to rush the process, to "ripen a growing thing too soon," an...

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...e world of Cane, with its various stories and poems about the African-American experience.

I felt sorry for Karintha in this story. She was a person that was judged her entire life - even in childhood - by her appearance and what that could mean to various men. The choices that she made as an adult are not really surprising when you consider the way that she was treated in her childhood and adolescence, almost as someone who could be sold to the highest bidder (which essentially became her life as an adult). Nowhere in this story is there a mention of Karintha's admirable intelligence or ability of some sort (unless you count stoning cows). Because all that is discussed is Karintha's beauty, I saw her as a very one-dimensional character. The men in this story were in a constant pursuit of Karintha's body- and unfortunately for her, in the end they won.