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3. November Cotton Flower
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
Becky is a White woman who becomes pregnant and gives birth to a biracial boy. Everyone in the town—White and Black—is horrified, and though they drive her from their community, they still look out for her, in a way. They build her a shack on a forsaken strip of land between the train tracks and the road. Six trains and many cars and buggies pass it every day, and people often stop by to leave food for Becky and her son, but no one ever sees her again.
Interracial relationships like Becky’s were a specific target of many Jim Crow-era laws against interracial relationships, which sought to preserve color lines. Indeed, one of the reasons the White community turns on Becky likely involves her apparent unwillingness to name her lover, thus protecting him from potentially violent retribution at the hands of the White community. Yet, the story compels the Black and White communities to look out for Becky, however grudgingly, indicating its hope that one day, the social and legal taboos against interracial relationships will end. The narration clearly demonstrates that the community members—not Becky—are in the wrong.
Themes
No one sees Becky, but they see her son playing in the grass, and they notice when, one day, he has a little brother with him. The boys are ostracized by the town and are violent toward its residents. Everyone assumes Becky must have died. But after her sons shoot two people and flee, smoke continues to curl from the chimney of her shack. People start to bring her food again, then stop, afraid that they might be encouraging a ghost.
Becky’s boys aren’t allowed to participate in society, and thus they turn against it. Their criminality is a direct result of the mistreatment they suffer. Becky disappears from sight, but not from mind. Even after it casts her out, the community continues to obsess over her existence and what her choices say about its taboos. Ultimately, it’s not Becky that scares them, but the specter of a society that doesn’t judge people by their race. But in setting an example, Becky’s own life becomes forfeit. It’s less valuable or significant than the smoke from her chimney.
Themes
One day, as the narrator of “Becky” returns from a day trip, he and another man, Barlo, watch the chimney collapse and crush Becky’s shack. If Becky was in there—the narrator thinks he hears a moan when he and Barlo investigate—she’s buried in the rubble. Barlo tosses his Bible on top of the shattered bricks before he and the narrator race back into town. Now, the pines around Becky’s house whisper to Jesus, and Barlo’s Bible still “flaps its leaves” on her grave.
In the end, Becky is permanently erased from existence—the narrator isn’t even sure if she’s buried in the rubble. She became an idea that haunted the minds of the community because she represented a different—more equitable, less prejudiced—way of living that no one—either Black or White—was yet ready to embrace.
Themes
