rth, where so many African Americans migrated in search of work and a better life. The third section features an educated northern man, of mixed racial ancestry, going to the rural South in search of his roots. It is apparent, therefore, that Toomer had a clear structure in mind for the work. This type of narrative structure can be found in any number of novels where the hero leaves his birthplace, gains experience, and returns to look at his origins in a new way. But, in Cane, the connections between the parts are not so simple. The shifts in time structure and voice have to be understood as the unifying forces taking the place of the usual continuous plot, with its related series of actions. Thus, at the most basic level, the reader must observe the movement from rural to urban to rural, and ask what the connections are. Already, the connections among the sketches in part one will begin to emerge.
The time structures of the narrative are among the most interesting of Toomer's innovations. The shorter the piece, the longer the time span that it covers. The sketches in the first section illustrate this. "Karintha" and "Becky" cover the women's whole lives. But, as the sketches grow into stories, the time span they cover shortens. Characters whose lives can be contained in a brief sketch, give way to characters whose fates are a bit more open. "Esther," for example, is divided into segments -- "N
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