The Street

Lutie makes her way towards her apartment, observing the women walking by with their “shoulders sagged from the weight of the heavy shopping bags” (186). She worries that one day she will be like these women, who had “faces that contained no hope, no life” (188) because of the constant struggle in which they were placed by poverty. She vows to “stake out a piece of life for herself” (186) by whatever means necessary, so that he won’t end up like the rest of the people she sees on the street.

Inside her apartment building, she passes by Mary, one of the prostitutes who works for Mrs. Hedges, who is with a sailor in the hall. Lutie thinks about the girls like Mary, with “faces that contained no hope, no life” (188). Inside her apartment, she’s upset when Bub tells her that the Super was inside, and insists that Bub let no one inside the apartment when she’s not there. Before she falls asleep, she thinks that the “[s]uper was something less than human” (191). 

This thought leads to a nightmare in which Jones and his dog have become one. He’s chained to a building, begging to be unloosed by Lutie. When she does attempt to release him, he swallows up her arm. 

Awaking in a fright, Lutie thinks back on other miserable experiences she’s had on the street, such as the spring day she came across a crowd who had gathered around a dead man whose shoes “had worn out entirely” (196). The man had been stabbed by a white baker after an attempted robbery, but the thing Lutie remembers most is the way the man’s sister had a look of “resignation, of complete acceptance” (197) on her face. The newspapers later claimed that the poor, thin dead man was in fact a “burly Negro” (198), a discrepancy that Lutie believes encapsulates the way that whites often dehumanize blacks, as “threat, or an animal, or a curse, or a blight, or a joke” (199).

Lutie then thinks about other experiences with people who had had that same look of resignation: a sick old man in a hospital, a young girl in the same hospital who’d been “[c]ut to ribbons” (202), and another young women on the street, whose face had blood “oozing down over her eyes, her nose, over her cheeks” (205). Each person had become so “accustomed to the sight and sound of violence and of death that they wouldn’t protest against it” (204). She worries that this is the fate in store for her and Bub, unless she can dig them out of it.

In the morning, as she prepares for her singing audition that night, she notices that the blouse that the super had fondled the night before has “great smudges of dirt and tight, small wrinkles” (209). She blames Bub, who protests that he hadn’t been in her closet, and soon figures out that it was the super. She realizes that Jones is “crazy, absolutely” (210), and vows not to wear the blouse for a long time.

As Lutie prepares to leave for her audition with Boots, Bub tries to hide his growing anxiety for that fact that “he would be in the house alone” (212). The noises, the loneliness, and the darkness frighten him when she’s gone, and Lutie won’t let him keep the light on, in order to save money. 

Lutie tucks him in and then leaves him in the “heavy, syrupy” (217) darkness. Noises from the hall and from the walls startle him, and then he hears a fight break out next door. Initially, he welcomes the “loud, angry voices” (217), because they drown out the sound of the rats and make him feel less alone. But as the argument grows more violent, he can’t handle it anymore and so turns on the light, making the room seem “familiar, safe” (218) once again. He knows Lutie will be upset at the increased electric bill, and as he drifts off to sleep he wonders if there’s a way he can earn extra money to help out.

Lutie enters the “inexpressibly dreary” (219) casino to find it relatively empty. Boots introduces her to his band, and she’s aware that they all believe she’s just Boots’ “new chick” (221), and that he’s trying to seduce Lutie by offering her an audition. However, as she starts to sing, she forgets “why she was there” (222) and focuses only on the opportunity to leave the street. Boots and the band are impressed, and offer her the job, giving her a rare moment of “triumph” (222).

The casino begins to fill up and Lutie sings throughout the night. She notices the throngs of people dancing, drinking, and singing along, realizing that “nobody really listens” (224) to what she sings. She finishes, exhausted, and accepts a drink from Boots. She worries about how she’ll rebuff his advances when they inevitably come, and tries to think of a way to keep him away from her without insulting him or getting kicked out of the band.

Boots offers her a ride home, which she accepts. As they leave, someone tells Boots that he’s wanted at Junto’s, a fact that so distracts Boots he drops her off without trying to make a move on her, something that leaves Lutie feeling  “astonishment” (228).

As she walks back to her apartment, she witnesses the aftermath of a robbery. A woman screams out, only to be told to “shut up” by people from their windows. Lutie once again marvels at how the street “sucked the humanity” (229) of all those who lived there. Despite this, she is hopeful, and enters her apartment almost “dancing” (230).