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13. Esther
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Cane, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Navigating Identity
Racism in the Jim Crow Era
Feminine Allure
Nature vs. Society
The Power and Limitations of Language
Summary
Analysis
An African Guardian drunk on rum “yields” to the “new words” and “weak” speech of a White-faced God, crying “amen” and “hosana.”
This short poem written in free verse describes a people in flux, taken from their cultural contexts in Africa and carried to the United States where they had to create a sense of identity based on the culture of their oppressors. The poem thus positions Black culture as enfeebled as long as it tries to recreate White culture rather than exist on its own merits.
Themes
