The Street
Ann Petry
There are many obstacles in life, and when one can’t achieve something, the easiest thing to do is simply give up. Not everything is worth fighting for, however some things are. In the novel, The Street, Lutie Johnson is faced with the question, “What is worth fighting for?” The story takes place in Harlem in the year 1944, during the Harlem Renaissance. Lutie and her son, Bub, have been living with Lutie's father and his girlfriend, Lil. Lutie wants to get Bub away from Lil and her detrimental habits. Throughout the novel, Lutie has a fierce determination that she can achieve financial stability. She has to keep pushing herself in order to survive.
Lutie and Bub used to live in Jamaica with her husband, Jim. They were very poor, especially when Jim lost his job. Lutie found a well-paying job in Connecticut, and moved there for a little while. But since Lutie was not there, he begins to bring other women home while his wife is at work. Mrs. Pizzini tells Lutie, "It's best that the man do the work when the babies are young. And when the man is young. Not good for the woman to work when she's young. Not good for the man." (Chapter 2, Page 33) She doesn’t think anything of it at the time, but begins to wonder if she is right after Jim does this.
At the beginning of the novel, Lutie was very confident, and she believed she could do anything if she worked hard enough.” Anybody could be rich if he wanted to and worked hard enough and figured it out carefully enough." (Chapter 2, Page 41) Lutie believed in herself and she knew she was a strong woman. Even though she had two strikes against her; she was colored and she was a woman. But she believed in herself, and she knew that if she applied herself, she could succeed. "I'm young and strong, there isn't anything I can't do." (Chapter 3, Page 63)
At the time of this story, there was a lot of discrimination against black people. Most white people would not even talk to black people, and...