Within the first half of the opening of “The Street”, Petry personifies the wind. She then begins to introduce Lutie Johnson. Once Lutie Johnson is introduced, the focus shifts from the wind to Lutie Johnson. In the opening of “The Street”, Ann Petry uses imagery in order to personify the wind and includes detail, conjunctions and omission of conjunctions, symbolism, and loose sentence structure in order to set the scene of the story and express how Lutie Johnson feels. It becomes obvious to the reader that Petry develops the plot with an abundance of imagery. She uses specific verbs and adjectives in order to personify the wind. She includes words like “rattled”, “fingering, and “stamped” to describe the wind, rather than her blatantly …show more content…
She goes back and forth from omitting conjunctions and including conjunctions. In the beginning of paragraph 2, Petry omits conjunctions when listing the different paper being collected by the wind. Petry then transitions to including conjunctions throughout paragraph 2, when listing the places the wind has passed through. Including and omitting conjunctions can change the pace while the reader is reading the text. This causes a rather loose sentence structure, making Petry’s style more unstructured.
In the last paragraph, Petry includes simple sentences and clauses throughout the entire paragraph. This gives the reader the impression that the three bedroom home is rather simplistic itself. The last paragraph also contrasts with rest of the introduction due to the rest of the paragraphs including longer, more complex, run on sentences and clauses. It can be noted that there is a shift in sentence structure. The shift in sentence structure is rather important to the text itself because it goes from lengthy and descriptive, and concludes with a simple concluding …show more content…
This use of symbolism creates the idea that the wind is challenging Lutie Johnson. The use of imagery gives the reader the idea that Lutie Johnson herself is pushing against the wind (the Great Depression), and the wind is trying to get her to give up. The fact that the wind wants Lutie Johnson to give up, symbolizes Lutie Johnson potentially losing her faith in the American Dream due to the severity of the Great Depression. In the last paragraph, Petry includes “The wind held it still for an instant in front of her and then swooped it away until it was standing at an impossible angle on the rod that suspended it from the building.” This part of the concluding paragraph symbolizes the fact that Lutie Johnson stability was present until the Great Depression (or the wind) took it away from her. In a way, Lutie Johnson represents all Americans who suffered during this time.
Ann Petry has multiple focuses in the introduction of “The Street”. There is a rather loose sentence structure with the inclusion and omission of conjunctions. Petry also includes multiple shifts in order to offer a more broad perspective in her introduction. She uses symbolism, personification, detail, and imagery in order to exemplify Lutie Johnson and how she feels, and describe the