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The Street Ann Petry Analysis

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In the passage from The Street, Ann Petry describes the cold november wind discouraging people from walking outside in the city. The wind blows throughout the city and teases the people it finds. Petry later introduces Lutie Johnson, a new comer in the city. She fights the wind to find a suitable place with three room. The harsh nature of city life is represented through the teasing wind and Lutie Johnson’s fight against it. In the beginning of the passage, the wind on 116th street goes through “[rattling] the tops of garbage cans” and flapping window shades. The wind does seemingly meaningless actions to disturb the people in the city. The wind also drives “most of the people off the street” with its “violent assault”. The wind’s assaults …show more content…

The sign’s “original coat of white paint” is streaked with rust from the rain and snow. The image of corrosion from the city conditions indicates that the city life corrodes people’s will. The image also displays how Lutie Johnson might end up in the city as her confidence and comfort is taken away by the wind and the city. The sign also has a “dark red stain like blood”. The vivid color of red indicates the severe effects that the city has on people. In earlier parts of the passage, there are “chicken bones and pork-chop bones” that are left along the curb. The image of bones combined with blood indicates that the city can both physically and mentally kill a person with its harsh conditions. The wind strengthens the chaotic image of the city by blowing old envelopes and newspapers so the papers dance in the air. The papers and bones left on the street creates an empty and dark image of the city. Although the city is a deadly and dark place that discourages people from entering it, Lutie Johnson manages to read the sign at the end. After reading the sign she concludes that the rooms are “reasonable”. After the fight against the cruel wind, Lutie Johnson only achieves a small victory that is “reasonable”, not “great”. The small reward that does not match the effort that Lutie Johnson used illustrates that despite how hard a person works, the city can only offer small

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In this passage from, "The Street", by Ann Petry, Lutie Johnson's relationship with her urban setting is expressed thoroughly. The author creates a vision of the surroundings and expresses Lutie's relationship with her urban setting through the use of selection of detail, personification,imagery and figurative language. Petry begins the passage utilizing the selection of detail. She stated, "It rattled the tops of garbage cans, sucked windows shades out through the top of the opened windows and set them flapping back against the windows"(Paragraph 1). She uses details to describe how forceful the wind that was blowing was and the strength of it.

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In the excerpt, The Street by Ann Petry, there is a 3rd person omniscient narrator to explain the hatefulness of the cold along with the keen determination of Lutie Johnson. The narrator completely conveys the true parts of the cold to better show Lutie Johnson’s experiences by employing descriptive personifications and vivid imagery of the central antagonist as the wind. Imagery is undeniably the most used literary device in this excerpt, as it gives the reader an accurate sense of the horrible temperate weather that the protagonist is forced to endure in her search for a home. The presence of the “Cold November wind” is shown in the sense of disorder and chaos that is at 110th street. “Scraps of paper “are sent “…into the faces of the people

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Ann Petry pens a stimulating expositional read in her 1946 novel, The Street. Running with the over-arching anticipated universal theme of vulnerability, Petry establishes Lutie Johnson’s relationship with the urban setting quite succinctly. Through her use of well-placed literary conventions, Ann Petry delivers a piece that will withstand the test of time. Petry establishes the wind as a symbol of an attacker to foreshadow Lutie Johnson’s violent future. From the very first paragraph, the wind is written ripping through the street, doubling over the pedestrians against its force.

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