The first section of Cane by Jean Toomer contains a collection of poems and short stories. These poems and short stories are all different but they are all unified and linked to the title of the book, Cane. It is evident that they took place at a time when the black race was enslaved and working in the cane and cotton fields. All of these works are referenced to the cane field. Toomer also uses repetition of certain words, phrases, and ideas to unify the poems and stories and give the illusion that they are all connected and lead from one to the other. Another unifying factor is also the idea of the slave song evident in the poems. Most of these works have a rhyming, singing tone to them.
             Toomer references cane in all of the works in the first half of Cane. The rural south, at the time these works take place is a place of slavery. The slaves were employed in the cane fields. Toomer uses the idea of dusk in a lot of his poems in Cane. Dusk is linked directly to cane. The beauty that comes with dusk does not last very long and the sweetness that comes from chewing cane does not last very long either. Toomer draws a parallel between the idea of dusk and cane. Many of the main parts of the stories revolve around dusk and many of the characters in this work's lives revolve around cane. Cane is their only means of survival. In the very first story "Karintha" Toomer writes, "Her skin is like dusk on the eastern Horizon" (Toomer 2). Toomer is comparing Karintha to dusk/cane. Her beauty is like cane. She is cane. She is the most important character in that story and she is being compared to dusk, to cane, the most important part of a black person's life at that time.
             In another story "Fern" we have the idea of dusk again. In this story dusk is at a very critical juncture. Toomer writes "I felt strange, as I always do in Georgia, particularly at dusk" (Toomer 17)...