ipl-logo

Anne Petry's Novel 'The Street'

362 Words2 Pages

Anne Petry's novel "The Street" gives vivid detail of the setting which creates incredible imagery in the story. Even the unmost important details in the story's is given to create imagery. "Fingering its way along the curb, the wind set the bits of paper to dancing high in the air, so that a barrage of paper swirled into the faces of the people on the street," (15-18). This gives clear detail of what is happening in the street by describing how the paper was moving to the wind. By describing how the paper is moving in a happy, uncaring way shows how Lutie Johnson's see the simpliest things. That Johnson's attitude toward her surroundings shows hat she has a very good mood.

Anne Petry's novel "The Street" gives personification to make the story more intresting. Petry's makes the story come alive when she gives a non-living thing a characteristic of a living thing. "And then the wind grabbed their hats, pried their scarves from around their necks, stuck its fingers inside their coat collars, blew their coats away from their bodies," (31-34). Petry gives the wind which is non-living a characteristic of grabbing people hats which is a living characteristic. By how much detail and comparesion between the two showed that Johnson thought that the wind was crazy. That the wind was so strong that it was taking peoples hats …show more content…

The figurative language can give a clear statement of what Johnson feels toward the object or person. "It even blew her eyelashes away from her eyes so that her eyeballs were bathed in a rush of coldness and she had to blink in order to read the words on the sign swaying back and forth over her head," (40-44). This figurative language would be a metaphor that her eyes are being compared to ice. This shows that Johnson's attitude toward the wind and coldness effect her eyes. The ice gives detail that she can't move her eyes for its so

Show More
Related

  • The Red Umbrella Analysis

    721 Words  | 3 Pages

    In this paragraph I will be talking about how the story and photograph have a similar technique. A technique that is similar and used throughout the story is figurative language. This is shown in the caption of the photograph when it says, “As the only window to the future”. This is an example of a figurative language because there aren’t windows that lead to your future.

    Read More

  • Literary Devices In Tangerine, By Edward Bloor

    1143 Words  | 5 Pages

    Throughout the entire novel, the author’s use of literary devices is very clear. These literary devices, specifically similes and personification, help the reader get a better idea of the exact sounds and feelings which will allow them to know what it feels like to be there in that moment. “ I stood there, trying to think of a comeback, when suddenly, I heard a whooshing sound, like the sound you get when you open a vacuum-sealed can of peanuts. Then the brown water that had puddled up all over the field began to move. It began to run toward the back portables, like someone pulled the plug out of a giant bathtub.

    Read More

  • The Beauty Is In The Walking Moloney Analysis

    142 Words  | 1 Pages

    James Moloney, the author of the novel 'The Beauty Is In The Walking', cleverly demonstrates and uses particular characters to put emphasis on ideas. His protagonists and antagonists in his novel are all created in such a way to indicate the different ideas, such as disability, friendship, racism and mystery. Moloney uses the character of Jacobs’s mother to portray the idea of family, and how much family means when you live in a small town. The idea of identity is portrayed by Jacob, as throughout the book he tries to find out and understand what he wants instead of what his parents want. In addition, the author uses the two background characters of Amy and Chloe, to show the differences of the City and the Country, and .

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Truman Capote's In Cold Blood

    539 Words  | 3 Pages

    All throughout this book, Capote used imagery, for example “...simply an aimless congregation of buildings divided in the center by the main-line tracks of the Santa Fe Railroad, a haphazard hamlet bounded on the south by a brown stretch of the Arkansas (pronounced ‘Ar-kan-sas’) River, on the north by a highway, Route 50, and on the east and west by prairie lands and what fields” (3). By using imagery at the start of the book, it helps you visualize the basic layout of the town of Holcomb, where the murders had taken place and where most of the story takes place. Imagery throughout the story makes you feel as if you are there in the story, resulting in a better flowing and understood story. An example of imagery that stood out to me was whenever Capote stated, “Here was a picture of the two together bathing naked in a diamond-watered colorado creek, the brother, a pot-bellied, sun blackened cupid, clutching his sister’s hand and giggling..”.

    Read More

  • The Symbolism Of The Wind In Ann Petry's The Street

    730 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ann Petry pens a stimulating expositional read in her 1946 novel, The Street. Running with the over-arching anticipated universal theme of vulnerability, Petry establishes Lutie Johnson’s relationship with the urban setting quite succinctly. Through her use of well-placed literary conventions, Ann Petry delivers a piece that will withstand the test of time. Petry establishes the wind as a symbol of an attacker to foreshadow Lutie Johnson’s violent future. From the very first paragraph, the wind is written ripping through the street, doubling over the pedestrians against its force.

    Read More

  • Florence Kelley Child Labor Speech Summary

    901 Words  | 4 Pages

    Kelley’s diction adds a tone to the piece and allows her to get her message across with helping the reader understand more deeply . Kelley’s use of imagery, appeal to logic,

    Read More

  • Imagery And Symbolism In Lee Maracle's Charlie

    763 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mastery Assignment 2: Literary Analysis Essay Lee Maracle’s “Charlie” goes through multiple shifts in mood over the course of the story. These mood are ones of hope and excitement as Charlie and his classmates escape the residential school to fear of the unknown and melancholy as Charlie sets off alone for home ending with despair and insidiousness when Charlie finally succumbs to the elements . Lee highlights these shifts in mood with the use of imagery and symbolism in her descriptions of nature.

    Read More

  • Summary Of Jacqueline Woodson's Brown Girl Dreaming

    1050 Words  | 5 Pages

    Jacqueline uses figurative language, symbolism, and inner thinking to give the theme of your identity can be found in what you are passionate about. In the beginning, Jacqueline uses figurative language to show her anger towards the fact that she cannot write and read like her sister can. For example, Jackie’s unhappiness when she can’t write well like other people shows when she says, “ / I am not gifted. When I read, the words twist/twirl across the page / When they settle, it is too late.

    Read More

  • Mrs. Hedges In The Novel The Street

    803 Words  | 4 Pages

    Mrs. Hedges’ character understands the power that “the street” have over people, and their success, or failure in Harlem. She embraced the reality of “the street.” She actually named ‘the street,” and “separated it from any other street in the city, giving it an identity, unmistakable and apart,” (252). Mr. Jones is the super of the building and is sexually obsessed with Lutie. He has little respect for women and views them as objects

    Read More

  • Prose Analysis Of Ann Petry's The Street

    634 Words  | 3 Pages

    This differs greatly from Lutie Johnson’s interaction with the wind. The verbs used to personify the wind’s nature towards Lutie are more tender and sympathetic; the wind “touch[es]” and “explor[es]” Lutie rather than “[grabbing]” and “entangl[ing]” her as it does others. This indicates that the relationship between the wind and Lutie is more pleasant and allows her to be productive in her tasks for the day. Though the wind tests her by pushing the sign Lutie is attempting to read back and forth, Lutie is not deterred like the other people in the story. Instead of responding with irritation, she remains persistent, and eventually the wind relents, “hold[ing] [the sign] still for an instant in front of her”, and allowing her to read it.

    Read More

  • Imagery And Symbolism In The Veldt By Ray Bradbury

    400 Words  | 2 Pages

    Ray Bradbury uses several craft moves throughout his dystopian story names ‘The Veldt’. Using imagery, foreshadowing, and irony; Ray Bradbury enriches the story with these varying craft moves. Each is used to place the setting and feel of the story in the readers’ minds. Imagery is a craft move that was used to detail important areas in the story and help sell the scene Bradbury is creating to the reader. This is used to build a mood; one in particular is suspense.

    Read More

  • Sheila Mant Analysis

    434 Words  | 2 Pages

    Imagery is a way of writing that the author gives you visual descriptive writing or figurative language. One quote that stood out to me was “There would be other Sheila Mant’s in life, other fish, and though I came close once or twice, it was these secrets, hidden tuggings in the night that claimed me, and I never made that mistake again. ”(41) This quote has a lot of meaning in this story

    Read More

  • Sherman Alexie's Views On Figurative Language

    617 Words  | 3 Pages

    The effect of the figurative language is that the reader can tell how prevalent the hope and fear was, it was as real and as much as the physical money and food. This also creates an emotional effect, as the audience can relate to the hard times that Alexie faced.

    Read More

  • Symbolism In The Street By Ann Petry

    680 Words  | 3 Pages

    Being a black woman raised in a white world, Ann Petry was familiar with the contrast in lives of African Americans and whites (McKenzie 615). The Street, centered in 1940’s Harlem, details these differences. While Petry consistently portrays Harlem as dark and dirty, she portrays the all-white neighborhoods of Connecticut as light and clean. This contrast of dark vs light is used in the expected way to symbolize despair vs success.

    Read More

  • Literary Techniques Used In Philip Larkin's Essay 'Here'

    601 Words  | 3 Pages

    In his essay “Here,” Philip Larkin uses many literary devices to convey the speaker’s attitude toward the places he describes. Larkin utilizes imagery and strong diction to depict these feelings of both a large city and the isolated beach surrounding it. In the beginning of the passage, the speaker describes a large town that he passes through while on a train. The people in the town intrigue him, but he is not impressed by the inner-city life.

    Read More

More about Anne Petry's Novel 'The Street'

Open Document