Jean Toomer was raised by a single mother and grandfather, for he “never knew his father” (958). He never completed a college degree despite attending numerous universities and colleges. Before writing his critically acclaimed work, Cane, Toomer used his talent to write for articles and magazines and was also a teacher for a short –while. While attending various colleges and universities, writing articles and magazines for work, and spreading the power of education, Toomer traveled to many “African American communities from Chicago and Washington, D.C, to small-town Georgia” (958). His experiences and time in these communities helped influence his writing in Cane. This piece of work of his turned him into a prominent figure in Harlem Renaissance …show more content…
literature and also in American literature. In his later life, Toomer spent most of his time searching for a spiritual community. In Toomer’s Fern, the narrator introduced me to a character named Fern who was ability to attract men of all kinds and turns them down later on, leaving the men unsatisfied.
However, the men are not satisfied because they did not get what they wanted from Fern, but because they are left with a feeling that they are the ones who left Fern unsatisfied. Her mysterious practice, making men “attached to her” (960) and making them bring “her bodies” (960), leaves me very intrigued and attached to the story. The narrator is also entranced by her and uses vivid imagery of how he sees her. He also tells us that she lives deep in Georgia’s south and that he is from the north. He eventually tells us how he first saw her and how he mustered up the courage to talk to her. After introducing himself to her, he asks her to take a walk with him. During their walk, as the narrator was holding her, Fern starts to go crazy. The narrator is perplexed and terrified. He described her screaming as if “she were pounding her head in anguish upon the ground” (962). Just as all the men that has thrown themselves to Fern, I was also drawn to her. Not in a sexual or romantic way, but in the way that I was curious and wanted to know more about this strange girl. I believe this is due to Toomer’s writing ability and I have to definitely give him credit for drawing me deep into the …show more content…
story. William Faulker was a “Native Missisippian, born near Oxford”, whose ancestors possessed rich history within the local area. Faulkner knew his native home of the south very deeply for he studied for a year in the University of Mississippi and “drifted from one job to another” (995). After seeing his high school love marry another man and the inability to establish a formal education, Faulkner enlisted in the British Royal Flying Corps and traveled to England. He was unhappy for the most part of his early life until he married his high school love, divorced then, and his writings and work saw acclaim and recognition. He is notably known for building a complex setting with rich history and deep connections in his stories. This setting was a county located deep in the state of Mississippi named Yoknapatawpha County. His background and life were a big contribution to this fictional county. His works shifted from complex and difficult writing into “more traditional” works later in his life. Faulkner uses one of my favorite literary devices in “A Rose for Emily”.
This device is foreshadowing, and Faulkner executes it very well. Several points throughout the story indicate foreshadowing of the ending. The first main point was the rotten odor coming from Emily’s house. Several of her neighbors complained to the Board of Aldermen concerning the foul stench that hails from the old lady’s household. This point helps readers contemplate and theorize what the smell that the neighbors were talking about. The second main point that indicated foreshadowing was the event that occurred after Emily’s father passes away. The readers are told that she became very isolated in her home and became distant from the world outside. The narrator also recounts that it took three whole days and several people to persuade her to let them help her “dispose of the body” (1000). This was a big indicator of what was going to happen because this was what she essentially did: kept a body dead body in her home. The third main point was when Emily successfully bought poison or arsenic from the local pharmacy. This event showed many clues of the ending. When she was buying the arsenic, she did not explain to the druggist her intention of buying and using the poison. This interaction between the two raises some eyebrows for it was truly mysterious for an old lady to purchase poison randomly. The final main point is the story of Homer Barron’s mysterious disappearance. Before he eventually
disappeared, Emily was bought weeding essentials such as a “men’s toilet” and a “complete outfit of men’s clothing, including a nightshirt” (1000). After they got married (an assumption completely made up by local gossip), Homer Barron disappeared and was never seen again. This event help further question the true nature of Emily’s actions in the past. Emily may seem like an innocent old lady with no secrets hidden, but these foreshadows make the readers think upon their feelings and opinions towards her. Together with the several details of Emily’s personality and mannerism, the main points prepare the readers to expect something different from Miss Emily.
A "hook" in literature is a compelling start to a story. Reread the first sentence of the book and discuss how these words were used to seize and then hold the reader's attention. Do you feel that it made you want to read more? Could the author have done a better job? Is there another book that did a good job with their "hook" at the beginning of the story?
Faulkner first tells that shortly after her father’s death Miss Emily’s sweetheart left her. Everybody in the town thought that Emily and this sweetheart of hers were going to be married. After her sweetheart left her the people of the town saw her very little. Faulkner then tells what might be viewed as the climax of the story next. He explains that one day Miss Emily went into town and bought rat poison. By revealing this so early on in the story it challenges the reader to use their imagination. The readers’ view of Miss Emily could now possibly be changed. It has changed from feeling sorry for this woman to thinking she is going to murder someone.
Debate centers around the structure of Jean Toomer's introspective work Cane. Whether viewed as a novel or a collection of short stories and poems, the impressions are poignant and compelling. They are full of passion and depict a writer casting a critical eye towards himself and his surroundings. The work is often read as a "portrait of the artist as a young man" more specifically a black man making his way in the South. As such, Cane is suffused with quest imagery and on a number of levels the work functions as a young man's introspective search for himself, his race and his place within both.
3. Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 51: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Trudier Harris, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The Gale Group, 1987. pp. 133-145.
Jean Toomer was an African American writer. He was known as the leading American writer of the 1920s after he established his book "Cane" which inspired authors of the Harlem Renaissance.
An Analysis of Jean Toomer's Cane In the prose fiction Cane: Jean Toomer uses the background of the Black American in the South to assist in establishing the role of the modernist black writer. While stylistic characteristics such as ambiguity of words and the irony of the contradictory sentences clearly mask this novel as a modernist work. Toomer draws upon his experiences and his perspective of the life of Blacks in Georgia to create a setting capable of demonstrating the difficulties facing the twentieth-century Black author. This presentation is both vivid and straightforward and while acknowledges the fall of slavery, it also examines the after-effects which remain in American life.
Kellner, Bruce, ed. The Harlem Renaissance: A Historical Dictionary for the Era. Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984
“She did not write to “up lift her race,” either; because in her view it was already uplifted, she (like Claude McKay) was not embarrassed to present her characters as mixtures of good and bad, strong and weak. Some of the other Harlem writers thought
This section she becomes very depressed. In section three it talks about how Emily is starting to come down with an illness after all of the depressing events she had to endure. In sections four and five Faulkner describes how there is fear throughout the towns people is that of which Emily is going to possibly poison herself. A while later she then she passes away. In section five is when the truth is revealed to the public about her sickness.
"The Harlem Renaissance - Boundless Open Textbook." Boundless. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. .
When her father passed away, it was a devastating loss for Miss Emily. The lines from the story 'She told them her father was not dead. She did that for three days,' (Charter 171) conveys the message that she tried to hold on to him, even after his death. Even though, this was a sad moment for Emily, but she was liberated from the control of her father. Instead of going on with her life, her life halted after death of her father. Miss Emily found love in a guy named Homer Barron, who came as a contractor for paving the sidewalks in town. Miss Emily was seen in buggy on Sunday afternoons with Homer Barron. The whole town thought they would get married. One could know this by the sentences in the story ?She will marry him,? ?She will persuade him yet,? (Charter 173).
Where the Red Fern Grows is an intriguing book, full of life and passion. The story is original and reflects the atmosphere of the 1920’s, as the story was written forty years later. The tale is moving and heartwarming, being centered around a boy, his dogs, and their mutual love for each other as they grow together over the years. Billy Colman, a winsome young boy, is the center of the story and is the narrator, as it is told in first person. Billy, being the main character, has many good and bad points, and is overall a good person; however, he tends to sometimes let emotion get in the way of logic. These characteristics can make him incredibly relatable to all ages and can provide a way for the reader to truly be engaged in the narrative. The story itself is a hard
At the beginning of the story when her father died, it was mentioned that “[Emily] told [the ladies in town] that her father was not dead. She did that for three days, with the ministers calling on her, and the doctors, trying to persuade her to let them dispose of the body” (626). Faulkner reveals Emily’s dependency on her father through the death of her father. As shown in this part of the story, Emily was very attached to her father and was not able to accept that fact that he was no longer around. She couldn’t let go of the only man that loved her and had been with her for all those years. While this may seem like a normal reaction for any person who has ever lost a loved one, Faulkner emphasizes Emily’s dependence and attachment even further through Homer Barron. After her father’s death, Emily met a man name Homer, whom she fell in love with. While Homer showed interest in Emily at the beginning he became uninterested later on. “Homer himself had remarked—he liked men” (627) which had caused Emily to become devastated and desperate. In order to keep Homer by her side, Emily decided to poison Homer and keep him in a bedroom in her home. It was clear that she was overly attached to Homer and was not able to lose another man that she
The author was born in Washington D.C. on May 1, 1901. Later, he received a bachelor’s degree from Williams College where he studied traditional literature and explored music like Jazz and the Blues; then had gotten his masters at Harvard. The author is a professor of African American English at Harvard University. The author’s writing
period in her life. These parts are prime examples of how Faulkner jumps back and forth throughout Emily’s lifetime. Part one begins with Emily’s funeral while part two begins “thirty years before”, “two years after her fathers death and a short time after her sweetheart”, Homer Barron. (93) Part three begins with her meeting Homer. This is interesting because the part before takes place after he dies. This also shows how Faulkner keeps one guessing with his unorthodox plot order. The next part talks of how Emily is planning to supposedly kill herself. It tells of how she buys the...