Identity in Modernity

His [Jean Toomer's] profound message [in Cane (1923)] to Afro-Americans is that in modernity, where alienation is commonplace, it is important to be aware of roots, but even this provides no assurance of ability to achieve a positive self-image in the ever-changing present. The search for personal identity is never a pleasant one if only because the very need for it connotes a misplacement, dislocation, and homelessness of the self. The act of self-definition forever remains open-ended, with no guarantee of triumph. Indeed, the process takes precedence over the result, since any static self-identity soon disintegrates the self. (88)

-Cornel West in Prophecy Deliverance: An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity

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