In “Withered Skin of Berries,” Jean Toomer depicts a setting near stasis, in which the introduction of new information suggests the possibility for increased understanding of a harrowing past. Toomer similarly uses entropic motif to set the stage for a hard-won empathic and epiphanic bonding between Vera and abolitionist John Brown, whose memory haunts the protagonist. As Eliot and Joyce suggest that ancient patterns of meaning making found in, for instance, the ancient Hindu Upanishads and Homer’s Odyssey remain useful, Toomer shows that recycled fragments of America’s squalid history are compatible with his new vision of social adhesion.