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Fern
The narrator of “Fern” is a Black man from the North. On a visit to Georgia, he sees Fern and becomes obsessed with her. Eventually, he invites her to take a walk with him in the cane fields. When he does something (he does not specify what) that alarms her, she faints in his arms. This doesn’t make him very popular with the locals, many of whom are in love with Fern and who already mistrust the man for being a smug and aloof Northerner. The narrator sees Fern for the last time from the train as he goes home at the end of his visit.
Narrator of “Fern” Quotes in Cane
The Cane quotes below are all either spoken by Narrator of “Fern” or refer to Narrator of “Fern” . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
10. Fern
Quotes
Her eyes, if it were sunset, rested idly where the sun, molten and glorious, was pouring down between the fringe of pines. Or maybe they gazed at the gray cabin on the knoll from which an evening folk-song was coming. Perhaps they followed a cow that had been turned loose to roam and feed on cotton-stalks and corn leaves. Like as not they’d settle on some vague spot above the horizon, though hardly a trace of wistfulness would come to them. If it were dusk, then they’d wait for the search-light of the evening train which you could see miles up the track before it flared across the Dixie Pike, close to home. Wherever they looked, you’d follow them and then waver back. Like her face, the whole countryside seemed to flow into her eyes. Flowed into them with the soft listless cadence of Georgia’s South.
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Narrator of “Fern” Quotes in Cane
The Cane quotes below are all either spoken by Narrator of “Fern” or refer to Narrator of “Fern” . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
10. Fern
Quotes
Her eyes, if it were sunset, rested idly where the sun, molten and glorious, was pouring down between the fringe of pines. Or maybe they gazed at the gray cabin on the knoll from which an evening folk-song was coming. Perhaps they followed a cow that had been turned loose to roam and feed on cotton-stalks and corn leaves. Like as not they’d settle on some vague spot above the horizon, though hardly a trace of wistfulness would come to them. If it were dusk, then they’d wait for the search-light of the evening train which you could see miles up the track before it flared across the Dixie Pike, close to home. Wherever they looked, you’d follow them and then waver back. Like her face, the whole countryside seemed to flow into her eyes. Flowed into them with the soft listless cadence of Georgia’s South.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
