51 pages • 1 hour read
Ann PetryThe Street
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1946A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Street
116th Street in Harlem is both the literal setting of The Street and a figurative state of mind. A street is supposed to provide transit from one location to another, and also serve as a home to those who live there. This particular street, however, provides no way in or out, and the people like Lutie, who are stuck living there, find themselves with no opportunities to leave.
This street creates the boundaries of a prison, trapping Lutie in a squalid apartment and facing deception at every turn. Like most other residents, she cannot afford to live on a street that does not have “dirt and dust and grime on the sidewalk” (2) and so must make do with her surroundings. She feels “neatly caged” (324) by the street in both its boundaries and the lack of opportunities. But she has not found herself there by accident. Lutie acknowledges that streets like hers are “The North’s lynch mobs […] the method the big cities used to keep Negroes in their place” (323). Black people get stuck on these streets, trapped in a cycle of debt and poverty created by “eager white hands” (324) that prevent her from seeking more. She could move to another address, but the street itself will be the same.
This is especially troubling when the street plays “nursemaid to your kid” (407), as it does to Bub. The lessons the street gives are cold and unjust, the innocent more likely to be punished than the guilty. At the novel’s beginning we find the street dirty, windy, and unwelcoming to the “few hurried pedestrians” (1) remaining outside, a condition paralleled at the novel’s end, when the street is “deserted, empty, quiet” (436). The street frames the novel in its desolation, proving that it is not fit for anyone to live on, except for those forced there by societal inequity.
Min’s Cross
Though Prophet David may be a charlatan, his advice for Min to hang a cross in her apartment, in order to protect herself from Jones, is sound. Jones is immediately frightened by the symbol, feeling a “haunting fear of retribution” (140) for his misdeeds, including his lust after women. Jones begins to see the shape of the cross everywhere, representing his inability to escape from his own immoral nature, and his internalized guilt.
On a larger scale, the cross also represents hope, a belief in a power greater than ourselves. Though some who live on the street may no longer follow the religious belief the cross signifies, having lived too hard of lives to seek grace, the symbol itself is still a signifier of power for people who are otherwise powerless, and represents hope that things may change for the better, despite all evidence to the contrary.
Hair
Hair represents femininity and the seductive power women have over men. Lutie takes great care of her hair, a feature many men find attractive. Mrs. Hedges, who lost her hair in a fire, rejects Junto’s offer of a wig: she’d rather face the world with bald-headed honesty, believing that “hair burned off her head like this, she would never have any man’s love” (246). The fact that she lacks this defining feature of womanhood reinforces her belief that she was never fit for love.
Min’s Table
Min’s prize possession is a heavy, ornate coffee table that she’s taken with her throughout the homes of the different men with whom she’s lived. She’s attached to it not only because it is a solid piece of furniture, but because it represents stability in a life that has had almost none. Its sturdiness is a symbol for the fact that Min has made and will continue to make choices that serve her own self-interest.
The table also represents security, as it contains hidden drawers that Min uses to hide money from Jones. Very aware that she cannot trust the men she lives with, Min utilizes the table as a way to ensure she is always capable of providing for herself. Like the table and its hidden drawers, Min has hidden parts of herself; though she may seem weak and pliable, she contains surprising strength.
Stillness and Emptiness
Lutie carries a constant dread within her that manifests as a living stillness that haunts her no matter where she goes. Especially acute is the fear of her empty apartment and the loneliness it inspires. Near the novel’s end, after Bub’s arrest, she cannot shake the feeling of unease, which manifests itself as a stillness that “would walk down the street with her and into her apartment” (413). This combination of guilt, fear, and anxiety is inspired by her living conditions and her inability to improve her condition.
Bub, as well, is frightened of the “silent, empty house” (349) in which he lives, avoiding it after school while Lutie works and keeping the lights on all night while she’s gone in order to help him fall asleep. This emptiness is a reminder of the lack of trustworthy adults in his life, as well as the inherent loneliness of being an only child with a working mother. Left alone, the characters are forced to reckon with their unfortunate lives and the reality that loneliness is yet another symptom of poverty.
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