Streets is ruff

This essay made me think a little more than yesterday's but I'm pretty happy with it. 

     

     A character's relationship with environment can be an integral part of the plot due to its ability to drive the plot or shape characterization.  In Ann Petry's The Street, the relationship between Lutie Johnson and the city she's in is defined heavily by imagery, figurative language, and personification.

     The role of figurative language in the passage is to create an interaction between the people of the city and the city itself.  The description of a " barrage of paper" in the passage is significant example of this purpose because that barrage was made of paper that the city's denizens had left.  In essence, it was like a part of a cycle where the citizens litter and the city's winds hit them back.  The interaction between the wind, Lutie, and the sign is a also a force to move Lutie to find shelter or at least make the search more urgent.

     Perhaps the most significant of the device Petry used was personification.  Giving the wind fingers and having them cause trouble by pushing bones down the street creates a personality in Lutie's environment which is integral to the complexity of a relationship within a piece of literature.  Making the sing's rust appear bloody in the reader's mind is additionally humanizing to the environment, giving the city a history where it has interacted with others and, by comparison, making Lutie's interactions seem more significant.

    Imagery in the form of Lutie's presence in this gale defines her character indirectly.  However uncomfortable it must feel to have the eyelashes pulled away from the eyeballs by a grimy wind, Lutie persists in her efforts to read the sign rather than ducking inside.  The description of her warm serenity being violated by the wind's cold finger additionally prepares, in the mind of the reader,l an established antagonist in the city as if a newcomer appeared to challenge a tyrant.

     By creating a visual out of imagery, personification, and figurative language, Petry is able to define not only a character but also her relationship with the setting.  These factors introduces a tone of the piece and even hint towards conflict with Lutie's search for shelter.  In this way, the relationship between character and setting moves from accessory to a necessary factor in the plot.