Use Of Imagery In The Street By Ann Petry

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 Joan Didion’s “Los Angeles Notebook”, her description of the the Santa Ana Winds encompasses an eerie and menacing style which shows how she views the wind as frightening and powerful, yet sinister and awe-inspiring. The wind, in the view of Roger Ascham, which can be seen in his excerpt in “Toxophilus” contrasts with that of Didion’s because of the way he writes about it on a more serene level. While both authors are writing about wind, their diction, imagery, syntax, and tone give similarities and differences between the two literary pieces.

Cristy FredaAP Lit7 November 2017Lutie Johnson is the victim to the abuse of a cold, windy November day on 116th street. In The Street, Petry establishes Lutie Johnson’s negative relationship to the urban setting through the use of imagery, personification, and selection of detail.Petry uses imagery that affects all of the reader’s senses throughout the excerpt to establish Lutie Johnson’s negative relationship to the urban setting. The text begins with Petry describing 116th street having a cold wind that “rattled the tops of garbage cans, sucked window shades out through the top of opened windows and set them flapping back against the windows” (ll 2-5). This quote immediately establishes a negative relationship

It’s known to Lutie that the paper, dust, and grime, does not seem to get in her face and anger her like everyone else. The quote that talks about the newspaper that wraps around their feet and triggers the people, causing them to kick their feet in annoyance toward the paper, is an example of parallelism. The reasoning behind this is that the quote gives detail into what causes the citizens difficulty and trouble. However, there are parts of the given story where only the wind plays a difficult and impenetrable effect on the way it deals people with very hectic trouble, which causes them dismay. For example, when Ann Petry expresses that the wind blew newspaper back again and again, it shows the rhetorical device known as an epizeuxis. This is defined as one word that is repeated for emphasis. This shines the focus on how the wind affects the citizens that are moving throughout the street, as they deal with the pain in their eyes and throat, and changes the way they experience their own environment. The citizens in the urban city definitely have a dismantled

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

Didion’s choice of words is one of the most important contributors to the mood she develops in her essay about the Santa Ana Winds, and gives the essay ethos as well. Although she does not use too much personification, the little she does use about the wind “whining down the Cajon and San Gorgonio Passes” sets up the rest of her description of what the winds do in a way that almost makes it seem that the wind is a malevolent being, set on scorching the mind and surrounding environment. Her use of adjectives unquestionably reverberates her negative opinion on the winds; she blatantly calls them “bad,” and “malevolent.” The ominous, uneasy description of the heat and weather support that view.

People are influenced by everything around them. The people they associate with influence their decisions, their surroundings impact their mood and behavior, and even weather can affect the outcome of a person’s day. Joan Didion, an American essayist, explains some strange impacts wind can have on people in her essay Santa Ana Winds. The author teaches teaches about the changes Santa Anas bring upon people and shows how “mechanistic” people are. Ms. Didion’s point is emphasized through her vivid diction, diverse syntax, and educated tone.

Petry contrats Lutie and the wind to help reveal Lutie’s personality to the reader. Petry compares the force of the wind to that of a “violent assault”. The wind also caused chaos as it “rattled the tops of garbage cans”, “sucked window shades out” , and “ drove most people off the street”. The use of this imagery helps the reader understand the force of the wind and some of the challenges it posed to those who dared venture outside. The use of imagery

In the novel, The Street by Ann Petry the main character Lutie Johnson, a black woman is a single mother raising her son Bub in 1944 Harlem. Lutie, separated from her husband Jim faces many challenges including poverty, sexism, and racism. Children, like her son Bub, living in poverty in the 1940’s cared for themselves while single mothers like Lutie were working; the same is still true today. Lutie was trying to earn a living in order to get Bub and herself out of Harlem, and into a neighborhood where Bub would have a better living conditions including school. Bub was afraid to be alone in their apartment so he spent a great deal of time on the street around external influences that were not the ideal. The street educated Bub instead of the school system. In Harlem, in 1944, poor, black children advanced though the school system whether they were able to read and write or not, the same is true for impoverished children today. In Bub’s neighborhood, his schoolteacher was a white woman who was prejudice against Bub and his classmates based on their skin color and their economic situation. Children like Bub, living in impoverished communities, do not have access to good education and miss the opportunity that education brings due to racism and poverty.

In the very beginning of the novel Alvarez simply uses the blowing of wind to symbolise something more than just wind. Alvarez writes “ a chill goes through her the future is now beginning … she doesn't want to be the only one left to tell their story” in this scene the wind blowing gives Dede a chill about her future (10). This foreshadows her future which is that she will be the only member of her family that survives the untimely death of her sisters. However, at times the descriptions of rain are very profound in Alvarez's novel. Right after this description of Dede being afraid to be the only one left to tell their story it begins to rain. “Now as ig drops of rain had started- though the night is as clear as the sound of a bell” this scene foreshadows Dede's future of being the sole survivor to become true as time passed on (10). The rain symbolises a mysterious and frightening scenario which for Dede is being the only one who will live to tell their story. Furthermore, Alvarez describes a scenario which involves whether to symbolize PAtria’s coming of age. Patria describes how she “ could see outside the window the brilliant red flames lit in every tree and beyond some threatening thunderclouds” (47). This quote is a strong symbol of Patria becoming a woman and being faced with the decision of being a parent one day or joining the church and becoming a nun. Earlier in the scene

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 Road is about a father and a young boy who take on the south after a huge catastrophe hits the world. The father and boy in the story are never named, which makes it very hard to read. They have many hardships like finding food, supplies, and shelter. They come along many different things like abandoned houses, people, and terrifying landscapes. When the father and young boy come upon the house and different people, the reader is excited because you never knew what was going to happen to the main characters, and when something good happened, their success was your success. Even though they battle through these hardships they find a way through it. The Road has a deep explanation of the road, the father’s dream, and the different people the man and the boy meet along the way. The author, Cormac McCarthy, uses imagery to make the descriptions vivid and clear which adds to the intensity of the novel.

Stephen Crane, author of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, uses forms of great writing to display the harsh reality of life during the industrialization era. This novella depicts the harsh life of an innocent girl living in a bowery, a poverty-stricken tenement district in Manhattan, New York. The reality of the depictions of the tenement’s rough language and unsavory characters, and not to mention her descent into prostitution for survival, made the topic of the novella controversial for Stephen Crane. The author, Stephen Crane, having lived in the district of New York and witnessing the problems that were common among the denizens of the slums, was able to depict the reality of a normal child growing up in the brutal slum-world.

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.

The wind is wicked..”. We learn quickly that the focus of the poem is on a female college student, waiting for the bus. While the poem’s speaker is watching her from afar. As the speaker watches the student the tone becomes more inquisitive. In lines 16- 18 the speaker states, “I am standing through somewhere just outside the frame of all this, trying to see.”.