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18. Rhobert
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
For a long time, Avey’s admirer doesn’t pay much more attention to Avey than to any other girl. But around the time he and his friend Ned hit puberty, Avey becomes a subject of fascination among their crowd. In the evenings, they sit on the curb and whittle while waiting for Avey to reappear from the flat of the top-floor feller who is her lover. Out of her earshot, Ned boasts that he would be able to have sex with Avey, too, if her admirer and their other friends weren’t always around. No one really likes Ned, who’s a know-it-all and who sometimes gets caught trying to seduce his friends’ sisters.
Avey, like Fern, Karintha, and Louisa before her, serves first and foremost as an object of male attention and desire. Although she exists before her admirer takes a sexual interest in her, he doesn’t seem to know—or care—about that time. Also like many of the other women in Cane, Avey is far freer sexually that readers might expect for the 1920s. In fact, all of the teenagers in this part of town seem worldly, matured by an existence that pushes them to grow up fast.
Themes
Avey’s admirer does everything in his power to attract Avey’s attention—showing off his basketball moves and his skill on the dancefloor, teaching her how to swim—but she never seems to think of him as more than a friend. And he can tell that she’s still waiting for the top-floor feller. One by one, the admirer’s friends stop chasing Avey, but he doesn’t lose his patience, even though she breaks his heart the night they finally kiss and it’s clear to him that she thinks of him not as a man but as a little boy.
Avey comes to define not just her admirer’s childhood but practically his entire existence. He calculates everything he does and everything that he is to impress her. This, in turn, suggests the looseness of his own identity. Obsessed with Avey, he fails to figure out who he is on his own, and he instead remains confined to the role of a lovesick little boy.
Themes
Later, after Avey has graduated school and her admirer is about to go to college, they spend a summer together with their families in Harper’s Ferry, West Virginia. One day, they sit on a rock called Lover’s Leap and the admirer not only kisses her but fondles her breasts. And still, she doesn’t respond to him at all.
No matter how many signals the admirer gets that Avey isn’t interested in him, he can’t seem to tear himself away. Unless he learns who he is on his own, the story suggests, he will remain trapped forever in a childish obsession.
Themes
The admirer goes off to college and tries—tries very, very hard—to forget Avey. But he can’t. When he returns to Washington, asks Ned about her, and Ned declares that Avey is “no better than a whore.” Over five years pass before he runs into Avey again, back in Washington, even though he tried chasing her up to New York in the meantime. When he runs into her on the street, Avey dismisses her male companion (obviously her wealthy lover) and follows the admirer to his favorite park.
Even after he goes away to college and after Ned and the others finally get over their childhood crushes, the admirer continues to position Avey as the muse of his life. She—or the hope of catching a glimpse of her—even directs his choices of where to live. Again, this suggests the danger that can arise when a person doesn’t know who they are for themselves. Despite this, the admirer is ready to follow Avey anywhere, even after years of separation and her disinterest.
Themes
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In the park, while they listen to the sound of a distant marching band concert, the admirer spins a beautiful web of words of Avey, telling her about his life and trying to impress her with his poetry. But he notices that she doesn’t respond and after a while, he realizes that she’s fallen into a deep sleep, like a helpless and orphaned child. Looking into her passive face, his passion dies, but he still borrows a blanket to cover her and sits vigil by her sleeping form through the night.
The urban settings of Cane’s Northern section cut off characters from nature, but parks—like the admirer’s favorite one, described here—continue to suggest the power and importance of nature to human flourishing. Although he finally seems to have Avey’s undivided attention, the admirer’s words are empty and useless because Avey falls asleep before she can hear or respond to them. This shows that he cannot create the world he wants to inhabit (one in which she loves him) through words alone.
Themes
