The Street Ann Petry Analysis

“The Street” Essay

Life is a game of survival as you have to hurdle over the obstacles that are place by nature. Ann Petry introduces her novel, The Street, with the uncontrollable force of nature that toys with the wandering souls of an urban city, not excluding Lutie Johnson as she becomes victim of nature. The author is able to do so by describing the wind as purposely doing so with the use of the literary devices: personification, imagery, and diction. For the most part of the novel, Ann Petry demonstrates the mischievous nature of the wind through personification. Through the use of it, the audience can perceive the wind as more humanoid. In the personification, “it drove most of the people off the street” (line 5) we are able to understand the force the wind has on the people. The wind, by doing what it does, is able to make people flee of the streets in search of refuge. Further on, the actions to wind the wind commits become more clear. It’s depicted as using items “it found” (line 10) to “discourage the people walking along the street” (line 20). Lutie Johnson too has to struggle with the wind as it “blew her eyelashes away from her …show more content…
The use of imagery gives the reader an accurate sense of the brutal cold that Lutie has to endure in her search for refuge. The author names the antagonist the ”cold November wind” (line 1) to give a sense of its power. We’re introduced to the scene of “scraps of paper” (line 10) “dancing high in the air” (line 16) because of the wind. We see that there is some elegance in the wind’s movement which may tie in to it’s omnipotent nature. The wind also has its darker side as it got the “grime on the sidewalk” (line 23) and used it to against the people “making it difficult to breathe” (line 24). Like a god, the imagery within the passage showed the wind’s double sided

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