The Wind In Ann Petry's The Street

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Ann Petry's The Street makes wind seem like an annoying little brother, but establishing its vicious and terrible features validates Lutie Johnson's determined mindset. Petry conveys the battle between Lutie Johnson's strong will and the horrible wind's persuasion to seek shelter with imagery, personification, and selection of detail.

For almost the entire scene, Ann Petry writes strong imagery about the wind instead of writing about Lutie Johnson. Filling the reader's heads about the wind, however, is with purpose; it sets up the reader to understand the hardship of just being outside. The reader can hear the garbage cans rattle because of the strong gusts, see the window shades flicker in and out of opened windows, and feel bitter ice bits relating to the few pedestrians hunched over against the " violent assault" (9). So, Lutie Johnson being outside is already a major victory. Finding out that she is wanting to read a sign to understand if there are three instead of finding out there are two room makes her not only strong, but determined. …show more content…
Petry personifies the wind as a person making it become a duel between Lutie Johnson and the wind. The wind "lifts" the back of Lutie's hair in order to expose the most vulnerable part of her body to the harsh environment. Then, it "explores" her body and "blows" her eyelashes away as a means to whisper to Lutie, "give up!" This seems like the wind wants Lutie to leave by making her feel uninvited to be outside. This is further shown with Lutie's struggle to read the sign because it's the wind's fault that Lutie cannot read; the wind "pushes" it away from
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