Chase teaches at Ohio University. In the following excerpt from an essay that discusses female characters in Toomer's collection Cane,  in which "Blood-Burning Moon" appears, she presents her view of the character Louisa.

If the fabric of Cane [the collection in which "Blood-Burning Moon" first appeared] is the life essence and its meaning behind absurdity, then Toomer's women characters are the threads which weave Cane together. Like the form in which Toomer chose to express himself, his women characters are no less rare and sensual. Perhaps they are all the same woman, archetypal woman, all wearing different faces, but each possessing an identifiable aspect of womanhood. Each is strange, yet real; each wears a protective mask of indifference; each is as capable of love as well as lust; and each is guilty of or victimized by betrayal—of herself or of a man. There is...