Carlo A. per. 4 Jean Toomer Jean Toomer was born into a upper-class African American family (being that his grandfather, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinch back was a Union officer in the Civil War and became Acting Governor of Louisiana in the Days of Reconstruction) on 1896 in Washington D. C.
He showed strength in his early years as – when faced with adversity, rather than wring his hands and retreat further into himself, Toomer searched for a plan of action, an intellectual scheme and method to cope with a personal crisis. Later Toomer attended college in several parts in the United States in which his interests turned to religion and philosophy and wrote numerous essays about these subjects. When he went to teach school in Georgia, where he absorbed the atmosphere of the South and wrote his book Cane, a classic among black American literature which combines sketches of black Southerners with poetry that expresses Toomer’s feelings about identity and southern life. His writings were greatly praised during the Harlem Renaisance during the 1920’s when black literature flourished. Most of Toomer writings were written in conventional rhyme scheme and reflected weather in Georgia or the feelings and customs of black Americans during the early twentieth century. The Lost Dancer from The Collected Poems of Jean Toomer Spatial depths of being survive The birth to death recurrences Of feet dancing on earth of sand; Vibrations of the dance survive The sand; the sand, elect, survives The dancer.
The Essay on Jean Toomer Cane Chicago Began
Jean Toomer Jean Toomer's family was not typical of migrating African Americans settling in the North, or fleeing the South. Each of his maternal grandparents were born of a caucasian father. But a 'speck of Black makes you Black.' Thus, Toomer's grandfather, Pinckney Benton Stewart Pinchback, was a free born black, a Union officer in the Civil War and was elected to the office of Lieutenant ...
He can find no source Of magic adequate to bind The sand upon his feet, his feet Upon his dance, his dance upon The diamond body of his being. This poem expresses Toomer’s struggle of maintaining his identity and culture through his works. The image of the sand represents time in which the dancer tries to leave his imprint of his soul, the diamond body of his being, through his writings, the magic. This poem is characteristic of Modernism in Toomer’s ideas convey abstract ideas about the soul.
