The book was reissued in 1969, two years after Toomer's death. "Cane" has been assessed since the late 20th century as also an "analysis of class and caste", with "secrecy and miscegenation as major themes of the first section". He had conceived it as a short-story cycle, in which he explores the tragic intersection of female sexuality, black manhood, and industrial modernization in the South. Toomer acknowledged the influence of Sherwood Anderson's "Winesburg, Ohio" (1919) as his model, in addition to other influential works of that period. He also appeared to have absorbed "The Waste Land" of T. S. Eliot and considered him to be one of the American group of writers he wanted to join, "artists and intellectuals who were engaged in renewing American society at its multi-cultural core."