ipl-logo

A Summary Of Lutie's Growth

853 Words4 Pages

Throughout a majority of the novel, Lutie, the main character fights her battle of survival as her and her son Bub live through poverty. Although she continuously gets crushed every step of the way she always kept her head up as she wanted to give the best to her son. However, towards the end of the novel we see this change as Lutie gets exposed to things that become out of her control and she starts to give up. Despite Luties strength and commendable qualities, Petry sent her on a ‘journey of decline’ to her breaking point.
From the start of the novel Petry describes the social issues going on throughout Harlem, and how Lutie goes about living with them. Right away Lutie is interrogated by Jones and Mrs. Hedges whether it be on a personal …show more content…

However, as Petry sends her on that ‘journey of decline’ she begins to crumble and lose control. “Lutie thought no one could live on a street like this and stay decent. It would get them sooner or later, for it sucked the humanity out of the people slowly, surely, inevitably” (Petry 229). She felt that no one could live a normal life on the street and somehow they will fall apart at some point. Although she held on for a long, she began to get the idea that eventually she won’t be able to go any longer, and will fail to get out of poverty. “Suppose it didn’t work and she had to stay there, what would the street do to her? She thought of Mrs. Hedges, the super, Min, Mrs. Hedges’ little girls. Which one would she be like, say five years from now? What would Bub be like?” (Petry 184). Lutie never stopped thinking in the back of her head about what would happen if she didn’t succeed. She reaches her breaking point when the super attempts to sexually assault her. During this time, women in Harlem were treated under very bad circumstances such as situations like these because people felt they were easy targets. Although Lutie came out of the situation unharmed, her fear increased drastically. In addition, Boots and Junto eventually team up together against Lutie as they claim to give her a chance to sing at Junto, however end up turning their back on her and refusing to pay or even help her to start up a

Show More
Related
1454 Words | 6 Pages

Lake begins by painting a lovely picture of Saundra’s life as a child, “She came from the Piedmont of North Carolina, with its valleys full of corn and cotton, and her people were good and prosperous.” (Lake 3). Even though Saundra has a good history, it is not needed for the reader to understand the situation. Lake proceeds to describe the past of Carruth, “He had never really grown up. He played the victim in predicaments of his own making” (Lake 6).

Read More
941 Words | 4 Pages

Without money first off, she can’t survive but also can’t pay off the debts to go home which is her main goal. Lyddie has an advanced way of thinking for her age. Lyddie desperately wants to get her family back together so she thinks if she works harder, she’ll make more products which means more money. If she doesn’t hurry up and get enough money to pay of the debts, she might not have a farm to go home to. For example, “She must work harder.

Read More
300 Words | 2 Pages

Although the characters in the story are fictional, what kids growing up in Harlem and similar neighborhoods face is not. By making Harlem

Read More
737 Words | 3 Pages

Clotel is arrested and by orders of her master is sent to a slave prison to await return to New Orleans. Ironically, the jail is in close proximity of the “President’s house and the capitol of the Union”(n.p). Brown’s further reveals the contradiction of slavery in a nation where “all men are created by nature equal” and “endowed by the Creator with certain rights, which are irrefutable. Because Clotel could no longer bear living without her daughter in captivity, she escapes from prison and commits suicide by jumping into the Potomac River, as this is her only option. In his book, The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition, Bernard W. Bell asserts, “Clotel is not carefully delineated as an individual, but as the archetype of the beautiful heroine whose mixed blood, noble spirit and poetic nature make her a tragic figure” thus, serving Brown’s abolitionist agenda (40).

Read More
942 Words | 4 Pages

Francie Nolan begins the novel A Tree Grows in Brooklyn as an innocent young girl living with her mother, father, and younger brother, Neeley, in a tenament neighborhood of Williamsburg. Her bright, observant nature allows her to be joyful despite her family’s poverty and her father’s drinking. While Francie grows older in the pages of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, she “comes of age” through her increasingly trying experiences as she loses her childlike innocence, but gains immense strength in character and wisdom. The heroine’s childhood is littered with hardship that prominently contributes to her maturation and transition into adulthood.

Read More
375 Words | 2 Pages

The author used a distinctly “Southern sensibility” throughout the whole book which helped a reader understand what the setting was back in the Harlem Era. The author did a phenomenal job throughout this book by narrating it in the third person and divulge the characters

Read More
803 Words | 4 Pages

Mrs. Hedges’ character understands the power that “the street” have over people, and their success, or failure in Harlem. She embraced the reality of “the street.” She actually named ‘the street,” and “separated it from any other street in the city, giving it an identity, unmistakable and apart,” (252). Mr. Jones is the super of the building and is sexually obsessed with Lutie. He has little respect for women and views them as objects

Read More
724 Words | 3 Pages

The story takes place at the height of the Civil Rights Movement in America, when desegregation is finally achieved. Flannery O’Connor’s use of setting augments the mood and deepens the context of the story. However, O’Connor’s method is subtle, often relying on connotation and implication to drive her point across. The story achieves its depressing mood mostly through the use of light and darkness in the setting.

Read More
282 Words | 2 Pages

Lizabeth's parents constantly work to provide for the family and do to their absence become one of the thing making Lizabeth's anger. This show poverty has to ruin Lizabeth's life in this way that her parent doesn't have time for her it causes her life

Read More
680 Words | 3 Pages

But Ann Petry also uses the contrast in an unusual way by allowing the darkness to inspire, while the light exposes unexpected tragedies. Most places that Lutie Johnson goes in The Street are dark and dirty. The stairwell leading to the apartment she wants to rent appears to be symbolic of all that is wrong in Lutie’s

Read More
1219 Words | 5 Pages

And earlier we see that she felt he was “was desecrating the pear tree” but did not know how to tell her Nanny, so she just “hunched over and pouted at the floor”. So as tie goes on things go as expected and she meets someone named Jody Startks. And even though he did not meet the standard of her pear tree, he seemed like a better option than what was in her life at the moment. “… he did not represent sun-up and pollen and blooming trees, but he spoke for far horizon. He

Read More
1215 Words | 5 Pages

The narrator associates Sonny’s struggles within the bigger picture of Harlem, associating Sonny within the poverty, crime, and drug abuse that has taken over the entire

Read More
230 Words | 1 Pages

The American Revolution is the most significant event in the New World history: the thirteen colonies of North America became autonomous of Great Britain and then, they took a new direction. Amongst the numerous motives for the revolution, the most significant reason was economic. The British government regulated the economy, with one of the main problems being the increase of the tax, this precipitated the colonial’s fight against the actions taken by the British regime. The liberal people had a determining factor role in this revolution, with the focal argument that everyone should have equal opportunity to produce affluence and profits.

Read More
514 Words | 3 Pages

This embodies not only the wind but also the urban setting as a location that will make you feel very vulnerable and unsafe. By the end of this selection the author finally speaks of Lutie directly and explains her specific thoughts towards the city. For instance, “cold fingers of the wind” personifies this city as very overwhelming and as if Lutie would much rather be anywhere

Read More
925 Words | 4 Pages

So basically she wants to experience if poverty is truly a reality. To start off her experiment. she decided to set some limitations on herself. The first limitation was that she cannot fall back on any skills learned throughout her education or usual work. which throughout the book it seems that was not really the case.

Read More

More about A Summary Of Lutie's Growth

Related Topics

Open Document