# Avey — Cane character guide

> Avey in Cane by Jean Toomer.

**Role:** supporting

**First appearance:** 0027-part-ii-avey

## Snapshot

A beautiful, indifferent woman in Washington whose silent hand-holding undoes the narrator more than any other love ever could.

## Who they are

Avey drifts through the narrator's youth as the girl on the boardinghouse porch, lovely and unreachable, letting him kiss her but never letting him twist her fingers. Her sloppy indolence—no ambition, no shame, no letters—becomes the thing he cannot forgive or forget, and he leaves for college resenting her as a cow. Years later, when word comes that she has lost her school and vanished, he finds that her stillness has lodged deeper in him than any energetic Swedish girl ever could.

## In the story

### [Avey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cane_se/chapters/part-ii-avey)

The object of the narrator's affection, depicted as beautiful, indolent, and emotionally distant. She falls asleep during his heartfelt monologue.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cane_se/characters/avey
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cane_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/cane_se/characters