Fern response

As I reread this story I found a new prospective meaning in it. I believe Jean Toomer is assimilating the characteristics of a beautiful emotionally conflicted women with the south. I first notice this when he begins to describe her. "When she was young a few men took her, but got no joy from it. And then, once done they felt bound to her." What I believe Toomer is referencing is slavery in the early colonial south. It has been common for men to describe no human things as "her" or a "she". The idealistic characteristics of beauty are usually attributed to women. Ever since ancient times when men wanted to describe things as beautiful they compared them to women. Now when Toomer says that "a few men took her but got no joy from it" I believe he is describing how African American slaves were forced to work the fields and maintain the prominence of the south under extreme scrutiny. They gained no joy from this they simply were forced to do it; but afterwords when slavery was abolished some couldn't bring themselves to leave. For although it was forcibly made there home it was still there home none the less. The beauty and majesty of south lured men from all over. I believe this is where the main character comes into play. After the civil war the south entered an era known as Reconstruction. During this era people up north traveled south to take jobs and reap other benefits that the brutalized south had to offer. Southerners referenced these northern yankees as carpetbaggers. Toomer states that "he" came down on a train and was enthralled in the beauty just like every other person who was lured to her siren like call. Like everyone else he asked to much from a place that just wasn't in the position to give it.