The Importance Of Environment In Lutie Johnson's The Street

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In The Street, by Ann Petry, Lutie Johnson, faces many obstacles within her environment and surroundings. Being a minority woman, single mother and living in Harlem, she becomes a victim of her environment in a way. She is vulnerable and at risk due to many obstacles she faces due to society and her relationship to her surroundings and the environment she lives in. Being a minority woman living in Harlem made it difficult to show and prove how intelligent and successful she can be. Other people see how beautiful Lutie is and describe the way she looks and automatically fit her in the category of prostitution due to the simple fact that she is minority and lives in Harlem. Being a minority myself and growing up in a poor neighborhood, I too myself can relate to being a victim of my environment. I have been in many situations where many other people would assume a certain role I should or do obtain. There would be obstacles I faced as a young adult, looking for a job, many would see that I would “not be able to handle the job” based on where I came from, or I should be fit doing house keeping. Like Lutie, she was told “Not good for…show more content…
I felt unwanted, I dreaded my surroundings, was sickened by the aurora of my environment, Like how Lutie felt about her building in which she lived in. I felt trapped in my environment; any opportunity I failed in obtaining gave me less and less hope about escaping my environment. Lutie had high hopes that her singing gig would be her escape route from living on 116th street and it was put to an end when Junto had different plans for her and refused to give her salary. She did not let someone else control her outcome. She was still determined to leave and look for something better. The feeling of her not belonging and being lost, gave her enough motivation to

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