The Street By Ann Petry Essay

A theme is the prime element of literature, which contains the central idea of the story. It helps reflect on the characteristics that a story might have and reflects on observations interpreted from our view of the author. The theme, a main idea or underlying meaning of literary work may be stated directly or indirectly, but it is ultimately our job to figure it out. Throughout any story, short story or poem you can see the constant change of imagery that will play a big part in the development of the characters ability’s to demonstrate the theme. In “The Storm” by Kate Chopin, the theme illustrates many sexual desires, adultery, and happiness as well as shows a theme of conflict. Chopin uses a storm to represent sexual passionate tension that builds throughout the story between the two main characters Alcee and Calixta.

Ann Petry’s novel The Street (1946) is a commentary on the social injustices that confronted the protagonist Lutie Johnson. Lutie is a single African American mother who lives in segregated America during the 1940’s. Throughout the novel, we see that during this time period Lutie is confronted by racism, sexism, and classism on a daily basis while in her pursuit of the American Dream for herself and her son Bub. Lutie is convinced that if she follows the example of Benjamin Franklin, by working hard and saving wisely, she will be able to achieve the dream of being financially independent and therefore be able to move out from the Street in which she is confined to. Benjamin Franklin is embodied in the text through the character Junto. It is Junto that is supposed to get Lutie closer towards her dream. However, Junto, through his secret manipulations tries to possess Lutie sexually, ultimately leading Lutie towards her path of destruction and she ends up committing the murder of Junto’s henchman, Boots. Junto represents the writer Petry’s deep disillusionment with this cultural myth of the so-called American dream. In Richard Wright’s novel Native Son (1940), The protagonist Bigger Thomas, is a 20-year-old African American youth who grew up in segregated America during the 1930s. Throughout this novel, we see Bigger also striving towards the pursuit of the American Dream. Bigger risks everything to not compromise his pursuit towards success. Unfortunately, he ends up falling

Didion personifies the wind as almost an unknown epidemic. Similar to when an unknown disease goes viral, all walks of life are affected. Didion clearly states how teachers, students, doctors, to physicists, to generally everyone becomes unhappy and uncomfortable during the winds. She does not write of how the wind caused fire to ravage the shrublands, but she writes of the symptoms it inflicts on the people. Didion mentions all the after effects of the wind and the harm it can do like inflict paranoia. She mentions how the fear-stricken victims of southern California are paranoid like her neighbor that refuses to leave the house and her husband who roams with a machete. Didion’s personification of the wind focuses on a fearful and distant light.

In his short story, “The Strangers That Came to Town,” Ambrose Flack is showing that true freedom is about being accepted. It shows that true freedom is about being accepted because of the way that the Duvitch family is placed in a community where they are not accepted at first but then do become accepted. Mr. Duvitch didn’t talk much to anyone because of lack of freedom to be who he was, Mrs. Duvitch didn’t have the freedom to also be who she was because people talked about her and the Duvitch children to were quiet ones who didn’t have freedom in the sense that they couldn’t just go out and play with the other kids.

The author uses a lot of figurative language throughout the story. The forceful wind is compared to a dog shaking a rat between its teeth. As Janet tried to calm herself, the idea that a dead woman was in the basement of her house began to beat at her like a flail. The idea that she was frozen with freight was illustrated by her body being like a drawn bow. Examples of more figurative language can be found throughout the text.

(E) The motif of the entire novel revolves around fire. Fire is used as a literal object as well as a

In The essay “How It Feels to Be Colored Me” is a descriptive essay in which Zora Neale Hurston discovers her real identity. At the beginning of the essay, the setting takes place in Eatonville, Florida describing moments when Zora greets her neighbors by singing and dancing without anybody judging her. Back then, she was free from feeling different among other races. However, a tragedy happened when she was thirteen, her mom passed away and she left home to attend school in Jacksonville where she experiences discrimination due to her color of skin. She was introduced to a different lifestyle where the color of her skin was an unfortunate thing. However, she felt this change effected the way she viewed her appearance, as well as inside her. Here she also experienced isolation that comes from being different compared to other races. Hurst realizes that it’s more than just being “colored”, but how race can separate people. Back in history, Jacksonville’s habitants were a mixture of blacks and whites. In Jacksonville, Hurst was just another “colored girl.” However, this essay motivated me to analyze, evaluate and synthesize these works and explore the concepts and themes that run through each of the readings. Most importantly, find out what made this essay so important in American literature. According to the description in the essay, I have notice that the author Hurston uses literary devices like metaphor and tone that I found interesting and deserving for the reader to enjoy this journey.

Why do you think McCarthy has chosen not to give his characters names? How do the generic labels of “the man” and “the boy” affect the way you /readers relate to them?

In this paper, I plan to first describe the “Code of the Street” which is a term coined and a book written by Elijah Anderson. I would also summarize and describe two journal articles that test Anderson’s idea of the “Code of the Street” for a more definite explanation. I will tell how the two articles that I have chosen relates to some of the concepts that Anderson talked about in the book. I will then define general strain theory and social learning or differential association theory. Lastly, I will explain how general strain theory and social learning theory or differential association theory explain some of the behaviors that were seen by the individuals in the book published by Anderson. I will point out some of the individual’s behavior and demonstrate whether it may lead to crime or whether the behavior was learned in any way.

It is remarkable how differentiated works of literature can be so similar and yet so different, just by the way the authors choose to use select certain literary devices. Two different novels, Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, and The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, display these characteristics because of the ways the authors institute such mechanisms. Brave New World describes a futuristic era where humans are genetically manufactured for a certain job predestined to them before they are artificially created, and where common human emotions, desires, wants, and needs have all been modified to support a deemed utopian society where everyone lives and works together in harmony. The Road describes a post-apocalyptic

Freedom Road is book written by the renowned novelist Howard Fast. Fast has written many novels including Citizen Tom Paine, Spartacus and April Morning. Fast’s career was a bit controversial because of his affiliation with the Communist Party USA and his time spent incarcerated because of this affiliation. This did not deter Fast from utilizing his creative abilities in writing novels. He wrote his most famous novel Spartacus while incarcerated. Howard Fast died on March12, 2003.

Stoker contrasts the calm skies with the storm to foreshadow that evil is arriving in Whitby. The day is described lightly with “Splendidly coloured clouds”(84) but later “absolute blackness”(84) approaches with the storm. The colour black is a symbol of evil that is seizing control over Whitby. The storm conjures up emotions of unease as it creates “ discord in the great harmony of nature’s silence”(85). Once again Stoker further emphasizes how nature is being completed destructed:“The whole aspect of nature at once became convulsed”(85). The strong connotation implies the disruption is supernatural. These quotations also provide imagery which further emphasize the supernatural interference of nature.

Shel Silverstein, the author of, “Where the Sidewalk Ends”, was a musician and poet known for writing children books such as, “The Giving Tree” (Shel Silverstein). He was born on September 25, 1930 and died on May 8, 1999 (Shel Silverstein). Throughout his life Mr.Silverstein, worked in many diverse occupations ranging from the military to becoming an author (Shel Silverstein). Because majority of his books and poems were for children, they (the books and poems) often incorporated positive imagery, metaphors, etc. In the poem, “Where The Sidewalk Ends”, Shel Silverstein uses imagery, shift, and personal pronouns to identify that adults must forget about the materialistic things in their lives to achieve a greater sense of happiness and joy.

The Girl by the Roadside is a 1917 Bluebird Photoplay adaptation of a Varick Vanardy’s novel of the same name. This moralizing crime drama was presented by seasoned veterans of the film industry, including director, Theodore Marston, a former theater actor and who transitioned to film and directed several crime dramas such as 1918’s Beyond the Law, and starring one of Universal’s most popular actresses, Violet Mersereau, whose career spanned eighteen years from 1908-1926. The Girl by the Roadside functions as a cultural mediator, processing and addressing the complex social circumstances of the period, as well as, acting as a microcosmic reflection of the transitional nature of the American film industry in the 1910s, reflecting the film industry in the midst of a transition which eventually proved to be successful as many of the systems and innovations of the time were perfected, leading to the future more competitive nature of Universal Pictures during the classical Hollywood era, as well as, the wildly popular film industry of this era which continues to amaze and entertain audiences even after its divestment.

Judith Wright extensively uses the structure of her poems to convey many ideas and themes. The structure of a poem is crucial to delivering its key message as it determines both the tone and how the poem is read. She shows the reader throughout the poem how the dust, which is symbolic of the barren emptiness that has “overtaken… dreams” of beauty and comfort as well as financial dependence, will consume the earth if the current environment is not conserved and protected. Wright’s use of title emphasizes this point in the clearest way she can and re-enforces her major concept to the audience. Another example of how structure is used in this poem is juxtaposition. The first and second stanzas are strategically placed next to each other because of their greatly opposing descriptions. In stanza one, the new world of dust and wind, many negative adjectives are used, such as “harsh”, “grief” and “steel-shocked”. Stanza two, which talks about the past, contains a wide range of positive adjectives such as “good”, “kinder” and “beautiful”.