Poverty In Angela's Ashes And The Street

-Intro
A common theme of Angela's Ashes and The Street is that everybody struggles, but we must be strong. Through the use of characterization, both authors show the reader real problems and they teach the lesson to perssevere. The characters in Angela's Ashes are faced with poverty, but if they don't stay strong, they could die. The character in The Street is faced with not being able to find a home. She is faced with cold. Therefore, Frank McCourt and Ann Petry both use characters, setting, and events to establish the theme of persistance.
-Character
In Angela's Ashes it says, "Mam sits by the fire, shivering, and we know something is wrong when she makes no move for a cigarette. She says she feels a cold coming and she'd love to have

a tarty drink, a lemonade. But there's no money in the house." The protagonist's mother cannot help her family, so the protagonist (Frank McCourt) has to fend for himself. This supports the idea that people must strive to overcome challenges even when someone cannot help. This also supports the idea of protecting those around you.
In The Street it says, "It [the cold wind] drove most of the people off the street in the block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues except for a few hurried pedestrians who bent double in an effort to offer the least possible exposed surface to its violent assault." Ann Petry uses personification to represent the cold wind as a villian against Lutie Johnson (the protagonist) and the people of Harlem. This shows the problem that the protagonist fights against to survive; to persevere.
-Event
In Anglea's Ashes it says, "I'll tell her my mother is sick above in the bed, my brothers are starving and we'll all be dead for the want of bread." This quote shows the challengles that the impoverish Frank McCourt had to deal with. The predicament that the author was put in, at such a age, shows that if you're strong you can succeed.
In The Street it says, "It did everything it could to discourage the people walking along the street. It found all the dirt and dust and grime ofn the sidewalk and lifted it up so that the dirt got into their noses, making it difficult to breath..." This quote shows the imact of the wind on the people. The people of Harlem can't afford safety, so they are subjected to wind. This supports the theme by creating the need to survive.
-Setting
In Angela's Ashes it says, "You can look in people's windows and see how cozy it is." The problems the character faces are poverty and family.

The household cannot afford society's riches, so the character feels greed. The setting plays into effect this way.
In The Street it says, "Even with the wind twisting the sign away from her, she could see that it had been there for a long time because its original coat of white paint was streaked with rust where years of rain and snow had finally eaten the paint off down to the metal..." Even with the perseverence of finding a place to warm up, the protagonist of the story is faced with a solution, yet still a small problem. The character, even though not in the most decent of places, has found safety from the cold of the November wind.
-Conclusion
In conclusion, Frank McCourt and Anne Petry both establish the theme of persistance through hard struggles. In Angela's Ashes, the protagonist is forced to fend for himself and his family. In The Street, the protagonist and the people of Harlem struggle to find protection against the cold wind. Both support the idea to keep fighting through hard times. And in the end, that message relays to the reader by telling him/her to keep fighting in times of

struggle.