A Cold Wind Blows to Burden the City Anonymous 12th Grade

Ostensibly, the Ann Petry’s novel The Street describes the work’s windy urban setting and introduces the protagonist Lutie Johnson and her desire to find an apartment that suits her needs. On a deeper level, this novel portrays the ever-present and all-encompassing challenges of life in the city as well as the perseverance necessary to overcome this struggle. Through sensory language and diction, the image of a personified wind exemplifies the harshness of city life, indirectly characterizing Lutie Johnson as a determined and patient individual.

The speaker’s strong diction personifies the wind as the city’s mischievous and aggressive antagonist. There is not a single moment of comfort with this “cold November wind” (1). From the very beginning, it is mercilessly “blowing through 116th street” (1-2) and “[driving] most of the people off the street in the block between Seventh and Eighth Avenues” (5-7). It raucously “[rattles] the tops of garbage cans, [sucks] window shades out through the top of opened windows, and [sets] them flapping” (2-4), the violent verbs implying the wind’s power and the city’s inhospitable nature. As a result, “hurried pedestrians have to “[bend] double in an effort to offer the least possible exposed...