Things to Keep in Mind

Question 2 Prompt: The following selection is the opening of Ann Petry’s 1946 novel, The Street. Read the selection carefully and then write an essay analyzing how Petry establishes Lutie Johnson’s relationship to the urban setting through the use of such literary devices as imagery, personification, selection of detail, and figurative language.

Things to keep in mind…

 Differentiate between Petry (the author), Lutie (main character), and pedestrians (who are in the first half of the excerpt). The key is to focus mostly on Lutie and the urban setting around her/influencing her. The way we view our environment is based on our perceptions…

o Some things that are always good to look for – irony, sarcasm, tone/mood, contrasts

 Clearly the street is important since it is the title of the book (so it will become like a character). Keep in mind that this is the opening to the book and the setting is developed before Lutie is even introduced.

 Imagery should have been fairly easy to point out – anything that you can “see” in your mind’s-eye. So the higher level papers will go beyond the obvious and point out sensory (5 senses) imagery and the more subtle implications.

o Also look for change/complexity/dynamics in the imagery and what type of mood the author is setting.

o “cold November wind” “rattled the tops of garbage cans” “sucked window shades…flapping back against the windows” “blew her eyelashes away from her eyes so that her eyeballs were bathed in a rush of coldness” “original coat of what paint was streaked with rust where years of rain and snow had finally eaten the paint …making a dark red stain like blood”

 Personification is clearly of the wind (making it act like a person) and as a result the street comes to life as well.

o Ask yourself what the author wants us to think of the wind and what Lutie thinks of it?

o “violent assault” “fingering its way along the curb …sets bits of paper to dancing…swirled into the faces of the people…took time to rush into doorways…and find chicken bones.” “It did everything it could to discourage the pople…found dirt and dust and grime …and lifted it so that the dirt got into their noses” “blinded them” “grit stung their skin” “wind grabbed their hats, pried their scarves…stuck its fingers inside their coats” “wrapped newspapers around their feet, entangling them” “wind lifted Lutie’s hair…felt suddenly naked…touched the back of her neck, explored the sides of her head” “twisted the sign away from her” “wind held it [sign] still for an instant”

o Don’t go overboard on making the wind evil - it is more of a trickster (obstructer, obscurer, thief, ghost). It could also be symbolic, blocking Lutie’s ability to more on in life? But the wind does allow her to read the sign.

 Selection of detail is a catch-all element. Anything that didn’t seem to fit under the other terms could go here. Or you could draw attention to more details that add to the mood or develop the setting or Lutie.

o Details about the types of scraps of papers that the wind tossed in the street – what does that tell us of the area? “theater throwaways, announcements of dances and lodge meetings, the heavy waxed paper that loaves of bread …the thinner waxed paper that had enclosed sandwiches, old envelopes, newspapers...chicken bones, pork-chop bones” “Three rooms, steam heat, parquet floors, respectable tenants. Reasonable.” – could show a glimpse of peace or hope or comfort at the end

 Figurative Language is an umbrella term

o Simile “like blood” - but other than that maybe you could use the street as a metaphor for her life or metonymy for the city (stand in place of).

Misreads/Mistakes:

 Must talk about the personification of the wind and don’t be too strong on your spectrum of tone (no evil wind)

 Don’t ignore the last few lines of the excerpt – you could work that into the conclusion.

 Don’t start paragraphs with quotations – your topic sentence (first sentence of a paragraph) should be like a mini thesis for that paragraph.

Commentary on the 2011 Open Essay

Prompt:

Choose a character from a novel or play who responds in some significant way to justice or injustice. Then write a well-developed essay in which you analyze the character’s understanding of justice, the degree to which the character’s search for justice is successful, and the significance of this search for the work as a whole.

Things to think about:

 This prompt is nicely organized into two body paragraphs and a conclusion.

o Use phrases from the prompt (see bold and underlined) in your thesis/intro and throughout the essay.

o You need to do more than just show how the character has injustices done to them and then gets justice at the end… that is barely a score of 5.

. How does the character view/understand what is just in their world? To explore this, you need to define justice in the context of the book and that society.

. Look for characters with unusual views of justice… John the Savage, Dorian Gray, Winston in 1984, Cathy in East of Eden… are all unique options.

o After establishing the character’s view of justice and many examples that support that, delve into the degree to which the search for justice is successful. Maybe the character doesn’t realize they are searching for justice. Maybe they do not get what they are looking for? Maybe suicide plays into the realization or the character dispensing justice to themselves or the characters in the book. Remember our spectrum of tone? Use that same concept to find a spectrum of justice for the character in the book.

o Always tie to the meaning of the work as a whole in the conclusion. o Use quotes if possible

 I’d use a graphic organizer to brainstorm for this type of prompt after you decide on the book and character.

Thesis: use key words from the prompt

The character’s understanding of justice The degree in which the character’s search for justice is - Justice as defined by this book and society successful - Examples for the character in the beginning and- Search for justice example: - Examples from the middle… - Example: - Example: - Example: - The end of the book…

Conclusion: Ties to meaning of the work based on the concept of justice and what happened to the character or what the character did…