Previous
14. Conversion
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
There is a woman with braided brown hair (like a lyncher’s rope) with bright eyes (like burning logs) and red lips (like scars) and with breath as sweet as the smell of sugarcane. Her body is White as the ash left when a Black body is burned.
This short poem, written in free verse, recalls earlier poems and vignettes in the collection focused on (White) female beauty. This beauty is dangerous because it invites violence, specifically the violence of lynching. Thematically, it introduces the final story of the Southern section of Cane.
Themes
