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5. Face
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
Workingmen sing together as they heave large bales of cotton. They express confidence that their troubles will end on Judgment Day, when God will roll their souls to heaven. The cotton bales become the carpet leading the way to God’s throne, but it’s still not Judgment Day.
This poem takes the form of a hymn or spiritual song. It draws on Black American folk art forms to express the idea that, while life has improved for Black Americans in the decades since the Civil War, things still haven’t changed as much as they could—or should—have.
Themes
