Cane

The chapter is prefaced by a four-line poetic epigraph describing a woman’s skin as “dusk on the eastern horizon” (1) at sunset. This chapter is interspersed with lines of poetry that repeat variations of the opening epigraph (“Her skin is like dusk…”). Chapter 1 begins with Karintha, a young girl in Georgia whose beauty has always attracted the premature sexual attention of men. At 12 years old, Karintha has a high-pitched voice and is lively and energetic. She is mischievous, but people in town believe her to be innocent. However, this perception of her changes when Karintha has sex with a boy.

The chapter jumps forward in time, and Karintha is a beautiful woman who has been married multiple times. Men still go out of their way for her affection, doing whatever they can to “bring her money” (3). Karintha gives birth in the forest and abandons the infant there. A year later, a sawdust pile at the nearby sawmill catches fire. The smoke spreads through the forest and over the valley. The smoke smell lingers for weeks in Karintha’s house. Someone writes a song about the smoke: “Smoke is on the hills.