To Lutie, they live the American Dream because they are rich and successful, because they went to “good” colleges and can provide that same education for their children. She sees their existence, and she continually compares her life to theirs, extolling their success.
Lutie’s desire and feelings for the American Dream stem from a myriad of factors, but one of the most notable is when she works as a domestic for the wealthy, white Chandlers in Connecticut.
In the opening chapter, Lutie looks for a new apartment, a move up from her and her son’s current living situation, and when she finds the new apartment, even with the predatory super and the dank feeling of the rooms, she sees it a “just one step farther up the ladder of success,” a step that will provide Bub with “a better chance.” Today, I want to look at the illusory nature of the American Dream throughout the novel.įrom the outset of The Street, Lutie Johnson works to move her son, Bub, and herself away from the poverty and oppression that encompass their existence. Over the next few posts, I want to look at some of these moments. While I have issues with the novel, as I do with almost any text, Petry’s writing and her narrative highlight the illusions and myths of America, specifically for African Americans. This year, I decided to teach it, and I was glad I did. While I was in Norway, I found a Norwegian copy at a store and bought it. The only work, up to this point, that I had read from Petry was her short story “ Like a Winding Sheet.” A few years back, Keith Clark started talking to me about The Street, and others, in various spaces, kept saying it’s one of the best novels they have read. Urn:oclc:490123073 Republisher_date 20120721132552 Republisher_operator Scandate 20120721073919 Scanner a lot of the texts that I teach in my classes, I hadn’t read Ann Petry’s The Street before I assigned it in this semester’s Multicultural American Literature course.
Access-restricted-item true Addeddate 19:52:57 Boxid IA181401 Camera Canon EOS 5D Mark II City Boston Donorįriendsofthesanfranciscopubliclibrary Edition 15.
0 kommentar(er)
