While writers like sought community in Harlem, others, like Jean Toomer, went “searching for his roots” in the rural South. Toomer was fascinated by the black folk culture of the South, which he depicted in his modernist novel
Cane. In the novel, Toomer describes the way that the South remains haunted by slavery. Toomer himself was haunted by his biracial heritage, which also left him feeling caught between two worlds. Meanwhile, Zora Neale Hurston was also determined to represent the black culture of the rural South, and particularly Florida, where she was from. Hurston also brought an important focus on the way race and gender operate in conjunction with one another, paying attention to the sexism that existed in the black community.