The Street By Anne Petry Essay

In the selection from The Street, Anne Petry uses an in-depth description of the wind’s actions to set the tone for the urban setting of the novel. The wind is the main opposition and harasses the protagonist, Lutie Johnson, every step of the way. The extended use of personification and careful selection of detail allows the author to communicate how the brutality of the urban setting deters Lutie Johnson as she looks for a place to stay.
Throughout the passage, the wind is personified as a forceful and abusive man who works to dissuade all people from reaching their destinations. As the wind blows through the city, it literally bends people to its will as “a few hurried pedestrians [...] bent double” in response to its “violent assault” (lines
The area is poor enough that the windows do not have panes despite the “cold, November wind” so the wind can “[suck] the window shades and set them flapping back against the windows” causing a racket (line 1-3). To add to the disorder, “a barrage of paper swirl[s] into the faces of the people on the street” so that both people’s eyes and ears are overwhelmed with disorder (line 17). Petry uses a list of the types of paper, “theater throwaways, announcements of dances and lodge meetings, the heavy waxed paper that loaves of bread had been wrapped in, the thinner waxed paper [...]”, to mimic the movement of the papers swirling in random patterns in the air and contribute to the chaos of the setting (lines 11-13). Lutie Johnson is not spared from the disorder or the cold around her; her hair is blown about by the wind and she cannot even read a sign above her head because of the way the wind is tossing it to and fro. The sign is described as old and “streaked with rust [...] making a dark red stain like blood” further evidence of the poverty and hostility of the neighborhood that the owner of the building could not afford to replace or even repaint the sign (lines