Previous
House
Smoke drifts through the Southern section of Cane—most of it coming in whisps from the sawdust piles of the local sawmill—representing the ways in which segregation, racism, and exploitation use up the lives and energies of Black people in America. Often, this exploitation and abuse comes from the White community, like the White community which turns its back on Becky after proof of her interracial relationship comes to light, or the exploitative sharecropping and carceral systems that trap Carma and her husband Bane. But sometimes this exploitation comes from within the Black community itself, like the lustful men who long to sexually possess Karintha and who cause her to grow up too fast and to lose an essential part of her humanity in the process.
Smoke Quotes in Cane
The Cane quotes below all refer to the symbol of Smoke. 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:
).
7. Carma
Quotes
The sun is hammered to a band of gold. Pine-needles, like mazda, are brilliantly aglow. No rain has come to take the rustle from the falling sweet-gum leaves. Over in the forest, across the swamp, a sawmill blows its closing whistle. Smoke curls up. Marvelous web spun by the spider sawdust pile. Curls up and spreads itself pine-high above the branch, a single silver band along the eastern valley. A black boy…you are the most sleepiest man I ever seed, Sleeping beauty…cradled on a gray mule, guided by the hollow sound of cowbells, heads for them through a rusty cotton field. From down the railroad track, the chugchug of a gas engine announces that the repair gang is coming home. A girl in the yard of a whitewashed shack not much larger than the stack of worn ties piled before it, sings. Her voice is loud. Echoes, like rain, sweep the valley.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Cane LitChart as a printable PDF.
Smoke Symbol Timeline in Cane
The timeline below shows where the symbol Smoke appears in Cane. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
1. Karintha
...from the sawmill. The piles of sawdust there smolder slowly. When Karintha comes home, their smoke is thick in the air. People sing songs about the thick smoke carrying their souls...
(full context)
4. Becky
...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...
(full context)
7. Carma
...from his view, leaving only a cloud of dust behind her, which mixes with the smoke drifting from the sawdust piles at the mill. The smoke and dust beautifully diffuse the...
(full context)
8. Song of the Son
A soul flies over the land at dusk as if it’s sawdust smoke. The land has rich red soil and pine trees; it is the mother of many...
(full context)
9. Georgia Dusk
...song and their dogs join them in the chorus. The sawmill ceases its buzzing as smoke lazily rises from the sawdust piles. The men, bearing the pride of their great ancestors,...
(full context)
