The Struggle In Angela's Ashes And The Street

Imagine: An impoverished, young boy endeavoring for nutritious food to feed his weak, debilitating mother and emaciated siblings, or a single mother undertaking homelessness, looking for shelter. The scenarios are from the stories "Angela's Ashes" and "The Street", the character's in the novels have to be courageous to overcome the challenges they endure. In "Angela's Ashes" and "The Street". In Angela's Ashes" by author Frank McCourt presents a family persevering through poverty and overcoming starvation. Similarly, in "The Street", author Ann Petry describes a mother persevering through the wind to find shelter for herself and the kids. In both, "Angela's Ashes" and "The Street" the authors used characters, settings, and events to show, …show more content…
A way Ann Petry shows, theme is through the characters by the use of dialogue. The narrator explains that "The wind lifted Lutie Johnson's hair away" (Petry 3). This proves that Lutie is a strong character who perseveres through the wind because she doesn't have a home. Another way Petry shows, theme is through events. Petry describes the house Lutie is looking at as having "Three rooms, steam heat, parquet floors, respectable tenants. Reasonable" (Petry 3). Connecting it back, the details of this scene help make the case that Lutie found a house for her family and survived her hardship, homelessness. The last way the author shows, theme is through the settings of the novel by describing the surroundings of the characters. The narrator shows that there was "a cold November wind blowing through 116th Street" (Petry 1). It is clear, then, that the author is trying to show that Lutie perseveres through her hardship, the wind. Using characters, settings, and events, Petry clearly shows the theme in "The Street" by using the characters thoughts in the