The Street Is So Much More Than A Story Of Ethnicity

To show first hand to the whites the inequality’s and hardships that the blacks face, the entire first section is in a narrative and a descriptive format. The use of these types of essays lets the readers feel more involved in the story and feel things for themselves. Split into two sections within itself, this first paragraph juxtaposes two stories — one about a “young Negro boy” living in Harlem, and the other about a “young Negro girl” living in Birmingham. The parallelism in the sentence structures of introducing the children likens them even more — despite the differences between them — whether it be their far away location, or their differing, yet still awful, situations. Since this section is focused more towards his white audience, King goes into a description of what it was like living as an African American in those times— a situation the black audience knew all too well. His intense word choice of describing the boy’s house as “vermin-infested” provokes a very negative reaction due to the bad

This semester we have done many reading’s that have touched on topics such as race, gender, sextuality, and more. One reading that stands out though is Dorothy Allison 's book “Two or Three Things I Know For Sure.” This reading discusses Dorothy 's childhood in a way where you get the picture of the true effects of poverty on her family, and herself. This look into her life can show the reader a real life depiction of her emotions and feelings at any given time in her life. This story of her life can also give the reader a closer look at the way gender changes based on income. While Dorothy 's family is described with very hard set gender lines on the male side on the female side they are more blurred.

Imagine: A young boy scavenges for food to provide for his impoverished family which was composed of his ill mother and starving siblings or a homeless, single mom desperatley seeking for shelter. These synopses from "Angela's Ashes" by Frank McCourt and "The Street" by Ann Petry share a common theme: perseverance through hardships. In "Angela's Ashes," a memoir by Frank McCourt, he stells about the harships he endured through his childhood, such as, struggling to assist his family in the midst of poverty by stealing food to provide for them. Futhermore, in "The Street," a novel by Ann Petry, tells the story of young Lutie Johnson, a homeless single mom who is seeking shelter for herself and her children. In these two excerpts, the authors use the characters, settings, and events to develop the theme, which I've identified as perseverance through hardships.

The setting of a rundown house in a poor neighborhood gives the impression of their struggle to survive as African Americans. The shabbiness of the exterior suggests their low social status. “A relatively recent addition to the house and running its full width, the porch lacks congruence. It is a sturdy porch with a flat roof. One or two chairs of dubious value sit at one end where the kitchen window opens on to the porch. An old fashioned ice box stands silent guard at the opposite end” (Wilson, setting description). While the newly added porch may represent an attempt to

Stereotyping creates assumptions which lead to segregation issues. Ana is a character who lives in an apartment complex next to the vacant lot that eventually becomes the community garden. Ana creates an assumption about Kim that symbolizes how Cleveland is a ghetto place to live. In the book, Ana states, “ Drugs most likely, or money, or a gun.” This text evidence symbolizes how Ana is stereotyping the victim, Kim, by stating that Cleveland’s a sketchy place filled with suspicious people. In society, our own police officers make terrible

The authors are able to convey the theme of poverty by creating similar settings in New York City and Ireland. Lutie, the main character of The Street, walks down the frigid sidewalk of New York observing the setting surrounding her. The author illustrates the cold by writing, “She shivered as the cold fingers of the wind touched the back of her neck…” (Petry). This quote shows the way the author portrays the wind. She uses personification to give it life.

The Progressive Era gave reformers concerns about the poor of American cities. Many developed the view that poverty was a result of some people’s characters and not their environmental and social condition. This brought up the argument and idea of the deserving poor versus the non-deserving poor. This alluded to the thought that character made a person poor and not that being poor made the character. However, Stephen Crane’s short story Maggie: A Girl of the Streets critiques many of these ideas. His biggest critique was that of religion and the standards and hypocrisy of it. This essay will argue that Crane critiques the hypocrisy of Christianity and Christians through the characterization of a wide range of characters in his novel.

She learns that in New York, people are quick to exclude those who resemble any sort of dissimilarity to themselves. When she gets lost and tries asking strangers for help, she notes that, “...a lot of them kept on walking, shaking their heads; those who did stop didn’t look at you first. They gazed off down the block, their faces closed. But as soon as they realized you weren’t trying to hustle them or panhandle money, they warmed right up” (Walls 246). This demonstrates how the many homeless men and women that reside on the streets are almost always ignored and avoided.

Poverty is a terrible condition, which as unfortunate as it is, many people across the globe suffer from. Poverty can present itself in many ways and in many different circumstances, which is shown in the following stories. In ' Angela's Ashes' by Frank McCourt, young Frank is burdened with the responsibiliity of providing for his family. Similarly, in 'The Street' by Ann Petry, Lutie, a single black mother, is struggling to find shelter for her family. In both 'Angela's Ashes' and 'The Street,' a key member of each family is desperately trying to support their loved ones and meet their basic human needs. In both passages, the author uses specific characters, events, and settings to demonstrate the theme that one needs perseverance to overcome poverty.

A strength of this approach was her ability to live, not just research the topics since she was fully immersed. Since she actually works low-wage jobs and lives in low budget places, such as trailer parks, she gains a unique perspective to her research topic. When she compares her fellow workers' living conditions at Hearthside, for example, with her own "$500 efficiency," she exemplifies America's socioeconomic gap with a personal flair, not just merely research scope. Her Introduction directly confronts this issue: "Unlike many low wage workers, I have the further advantages of being white and a native English speaker." Since her data derives from case studies of real people, their narratives make the book more authentic and connect me on emotional, not just academic levels.

For this assignment I decided to read the book Code of the Street: decency, violence, and the moral life of the inner city by Elijah Anderson. This book is about how inner city people live and try and survive by living with the code of the streets. The code of the streets is basically morals and values that these people have. Most of the time it is the way they need to act to survive. Continuing on within this book review I am going to discuss the main points and arguments that Anderson portrays within the book. The main points that the book has, goes along with the chapters. These points consist of Street and decent families, respect, drugs violence, street crime, decent daddy, the mating game, black inner city grandmother. Now within

First of all, Petry describes Lutie Johnson's character to be persevering due to her being out in the cold. Petry states, "The wind lifted Lutie Johnson's hair... so suddenly she felt naked and bald" (Petry 3). This situation shows the challenges Lutie Johnson faces while going into the cold to find a new home for her family. Secondly, Petry uses events to develop the theme through the struggles Johnson faces to do a simple task like reading a sign. Petry states, "She shivered... bathed in a rush of coldness... blinking in order to read the words on the sign" (Petry 3). This situation shows Johnson's perseverance despite being cold and not being able to see, Johnson was still determined to read the sign telling her what the home would be like. Finally, Petry uses setting to give the readers an idea of what Johnson's surrondings is like. In "The Street" Petry states, "It had been there for a long time... original coat of white paint streaked with rust" (Petry 3). The description of the month tells us how old the building is, showing the area she could be living in faces poverty, she also stated earlier the story takes place in Harlem, New York. With background knowledge, readers know of how poverty impacts Harlem. Petry shows the theme of perseverance through the poverty that Lutie Johnson faces. Petry does this by revealing it through the

In “The Street”, the main character, Lutie Johnson, is faced with many struggles in her daily life. Ann Petry portrays the idea that in hard times, you should continue to

The book was set in an African American suburb, built on old grounds where poor white folk would struggle for work and homes. Marie, a young African American girl who lives with her father, was abandoned by her mother. Her best friend Sherry was not fond of “trashy white folk”, nor was Marie’s father. When a poorly dressed white girl, Lena Bright, joins Chauncey High School Marie’s world is flipped upside down.

Discrimination and racism is always an issue, but the hardship these women had to face and suffer is something that is still being discussed. Understanding the fear, struggle and hardship that women of color went through during this time period is very important. Both “Country Lovers” by Nadine Gordimer and “The Welcome Table” by Alice Walker discuss race and the struggle with trying to be accepted in society.