Lutie Johnson In Ann Petry's The Street

Ann Petry’s book The Street is a novel focused on a woman, Lutie Johnson, who learns that her situation was one she couldn’t get away from. She and her son, Bub, end up in poverty and have to cope with everything else going on in their lives. Throughout the novel you see Lutie’s character development and how other characters affect what she choses to do. The things she takes in change her life completely and also change what she feels is valuable. This is the value of money and what Lutie thinks about the possibilities that money can have on her life. The author does a good job in showing how Lutie goes from being happy to miserable with money affecting her life. Although Lutie thinks that money is everything it only creates problems for her in the novel.
In the first 3 chapters you already start seeing money directly affect Lutie and her views on it. The author talks about how she and her husband are looking for money and it shows you what actions she takes towards this. This novel was focused on the 1940’s where men earned money, “Not good for woman to work when she's young. Not good for men”(Petry 33). It was weird to see women working but Lutie did for money. She needed to take care of her family and it the process she lost them. …show more content…
It seems as though many people in poverty suffer with having money and this can lead to many things. In an article it states, “The findings, published in Psychological Science, suggest that individuals with lower incomes are more likely to issue harsher judgments of harmful behavior, like lying or physically attacking someone. Global factors, like the economy, as well as individual factors, such as mood, influence this effect.” It also talks about how their judgments are affected by this and that they a prone to do bad things such as harm or steal from someone. Just like Lutie these people have also suffered and have had to suffer