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The street by ann petry thesis
Introduction essay of the street by ann
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The third person omniscient point of view in The Street by Ann Petry helps show Lutie Johnson’s feeling of victimization. A parasitic relation is revealed between herself and the setting. Lutie Johnson’s perception and relationship with the urban environment is established through extremely vivid imagery and personification. Through personification, we see the parasitic relationship between Lutie Johnson and the urban setting. The main source of this personification is linked with the wind, symbolizing the life of the city. It is described as living thing, shaping the city. The wind in the street is representative of the all the unpleasant elements of a life in the city—depicting this urban atmosphere. The wind becomes an unavoidable grievance to all city goers, “it did everything it could …show more content…
The narrator describes specifically how the wind invades her personal space, “as the cold fingers of the wind touched the back of her neck…bathed in a rush of coldness.” By adding this, it shows how she must constantly deal with these unpleasant aspects, having to find strength within herself to make it in an urban setting. The wind whipping the sign back and forth is the city fighting Lutie, keeping her from finding the shelter she needs. It is ironic that wind is an aspect of nature, and the narrator uses it to describe the torment of the city. However, the narrator does this to emphasize lively facade that many city’s have, when in reality, it is anything but high spirited. Overall, the personification of the wind portrays this parasitic relationship. The imagery throughout the selection emphasizes the negative characteristics of the city, enlightening us of Lutie Johnson’s perspective. This imagery makes the city seem suffocating. It almost seems inessential as it is so meticulously detailed, describing the “announcements of dances…heavy waxed paper…chicken bones and pork-chop bones.” This could
In Ann Petry’s novel, The Street, the urban setting is exposed as an enemy with all who encounter it. This formidable adversary challenges anyone who wishes to brave the city including Luttie Johnson. Luttie forms a complicated relationship with the setting as she fights its challenges in attempt to find her place within it. Through her use of literary devices, Petry establishes Luttie’s relationship with the urban setting. Using selection of detail and imagery, the urban setting is revealed as the antagonist, and through personification, the conflict between Luttie and the wind is illustrated.
Joan Didion’s description of various experiences with the Santa Ana winds conveys her message through various rhetorical strategies. Early in the essay the feeling of worry and anxiety is introduced by the use of words such as “uneasy” , “unnatural stillness” , and “tension”. Because the emotion is described early on the audience can grasp this feeling those who live and Santa Ana are experiencing. This feeling causes people to act abnormal, even when they have no awareness it is coming. Additionally the suspenseful emotion continues through the use of imagery, to convey the unusual effect the winds have on the atmosphere. Didion describes the sky, having a “yellow cast” and screaming peacocks in “the olive trees… by the eerie absence of surf”.
Elijah Anderson’s Code of the Street book depicts two opposite communities within Philadelphia, the poor inner city black community and the residential middle class community. The majority of the book revolves around describing how the inner city functions on a ‘code of the street’ mentality, respect and toughness. Crime, violence and poverty run high in the inner city and following the code is a way to survive. Having a decent family or a street family greatly influences the path an adolescent will take involving delinquency. Anderson divides the book up into different themes and explores each one my not only giving factual information, but he also incorporates real life stories of various people who survived the inner city life style. Some of the themes include territory, survival by any means necessary, toughness, separate set of norms, campaign of respect and the mating game. Some criminological theories are also noticeable that take place in the inner city community.
In the nonfiction novel The Devil in the White City, Erik Larson uses imagery, tone, and figurative language to portray the dreamlike qualities of Chicago and the beauty that lies within this city. Larson’s use of imagery causes the reader to picture the beautiful landscape of the fairgrounds before the fair becomes, which might make the reader wish they were apart of this scenery. Larson emphasizes people will see things they “have never seen before”. Like a “broad body of water extending into the horizon” (55) , making the reader feel as if
Jacob Riis’ book How the Other Half Lives is a detailed description on the poor and the destitute in the inner realms of New York City. Riis tries to portray the living conditions through the ‘eyes’ of his camera. He sneaks up on the people flashes a picture and then tells the rest of the city how the ‘other half’ is living. As shocking as the truth was without seeing such poverty and horrible conditions with their own eyes or taking in the experience with all their senses it still seemed like a million miles away or even just a fairy tale.
The vicious cycle created by the code of streets that Elijah Anderson discusses is never ending. Anderson brings up many different factors in the cycle that keep it going, only inhancing crime. Every example the author brought up were actions used to gain respect in the streets. Kids are raised around the violence and are then encouraged by their parents to keep the cycle going. The kids are taught to defend themselves and always win the fight. They have to win fights, be violent and act tough to gain respect. Their accomplishments in violence hold their respect status in the streets. Learning to fight like this and continue the violence cycle then gives people on the streets low tolerance. They are easy to lash out. All of these examples
Eden Robinson’s short story “Terminal Avenue” presents readers with the dystopian near-future of Canada where Indigenous people are subjugated and placed under heavy surveillance. The story’s narrator, Wil, is a young Aboriginal man who struggles with his own inner-turmoil after the suicide of his father and his brother’s subsequent decision to join the ranks of the Peace Officers responsible for “adjusting” the First Nations people. Though “Terminal Avenue” takes place in Vancouver there are clear parallels drawn between the Peace Officers of Robinson’s imagination and the Canadian military sent to enforce the peace during the stand-off at Oka, Quebec in 1990. In writing “Terminal Avenue” Robinson addresses the armed conflict and proposes
“He uses similes to compare the curtains that danced in response to the breeze to pale flags gliding back and forth caught in the wind. The shadow from the curtains on the wine colored rug is related to the image of wind on the
Flannery O'Conner has again provided her audience a carefully woven tale with fascinating and intricate characters. "The Displaced Person" introduces the reader to some interesting characters who experience major life changes in front of the reader's eyes. The reader ventures into the minds of two of the more complex characters in "The Displaced Person," Mrs. McIntyre and Mrs. Shortley, and discovers an unwillingness to adapt to change. Furthermore, the intricate details of their characters are revealed throughout the story. Through these details, the reader can see that both Mrs. McIntyre and Mrs. Shortley suffer from a lack of spiritual dimension that hinders them as they face some of life's harsher realities. Mrs. McIntyre struggles throughout the story, most notably during the tragic conclusion. Her lack of spiritual dimension is revealed slowly until we ultimately see how her life is devastated because of it. Mrs. Shortley, on the other hand, seems to have it all figured out spiritually -- or at least she believes that she does. It is only in the last few minutes of her life that she realizes all she has convinced herself of is wrong.
In Cormac McCarthy’s Sci-Fi novel, “The Road”, two mysterious people, a father and his curious son, contact survival of the fittest during tragic apocalyptic times. With a shopping cart of food and supplies, they excavate into the remains of tattered houses, torn buildings and other sheltering places, while averting from troublesome communes. In the duration of the novel, they’re plagued with sickness that temporarily unable them to proceed onward. Due to the inopportune events occurring before the apocalypse, the wife of the son and father committed suicide due to these anonymous survivors lurking the remains of earth. The last people on earth could be the ‘bad guys’ as the young boy describes them. In page 47, the wife reacted to this, stating, “Sooner or later they will catch us and they will kill us. They will rape me. They'll rape him. They are going to rape us and kill us and eat us and you won't face it. You'd rather wait for it to happen. But I can't.”
Throughout The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs, she writes about the city’s change through a ballet dance and movement surrounding her. “In real life, to be sure, something is always going on, the ballet is never at a halt, but the general effect is peaceful and the general tenor even leisurely” (Jacobs 833). This idea of change she discusses and goes in great depth with, portrays just how constant not just a particular city but the world is. She describes every day to be a ballet of some sort; witnessing everyone’s day as they walk down the sidewalk. Even when a corner is turned, seeing so many different face as they all move at different paces and occupy their time in different manners, it all adds to this dance. Everything changing around her and maybe even things not really making sense but despite all of that, still being able to come together and create something no matter what’s being made of it, relates to Growing up Unrented on the Lower East Side by Edmund Berrigan.
KEVIN and FATE are just two examples, the turbulence and unrest of its participants being expressed in a physical manner on London streets. The city can be regarded as both a grounding point and a reflection of the
Urban spaces are not only the physical areas of a city, but they are also places of contested meaning and culture. The normative meanings and practices of places in cities can be controlled when public spaces becomes less public and more private. Jeff Ferrell explores the increasing trend of controlling public spaces and the resulting actions of people who are taking back their cities in his book “Tearing Down the Streets: Adventures in Urban Anarchy” (2001). This book looks at the revanchist city; one that regulates and closes off public spaces, and further marginalizes the marginalized. Ferrell uses examples of direct action taken to reclaim space throughout the book, such as BASE jumping, critical mass, pirate radio, graffiti and street
Initially, the reader’s mind is directed to the wonder of nature by starting with the anaphora, ‘such a…’ Stewart sustains this attention by directly engaging the reader by utilising the phrase, ‘You’d think’. He then gracefully touches the audience’s inner soul and imagination with the assistance of the metaphor in the phrase, ‘a wind of the dusk’. Consequently, this renders images of the tranquil air in the lowering light, but also that same wind strokes the
One of the exibitions is devoted to the merchants and the advertisments which adorned the shops throughout lower Manhattan. The trade figures (right) illustrate the merchants of New York and broaden our perspective of the city by fostering a visualiztion of these figures and signs on the streets. We can imagine moving throughout the “numberless crowded streets” with “the carts hauling goods – the manly race of the drivers of horses – the brown-faced sailors.”