The Street

“Anybody could be rich if he wanted to and worked hard enough and figured it out carefully enough.”

This naïve perception of the American Dream carries Lutie through much of her struggle. Despite the way she’s been mistreated and exploited by others, she still believes that diligence and careful planning are enough to propel a person to success in America, and is confident that she has the qualities necessary to make it. She has yet to be fully battered by the realities of systemic poverty, racism, and sexism that keep women like her from advancing in society.

“She and Jim could do the same thing, and she thought she saw what had been wrong with them before—they hadn’t tried hard enough, worked long enough, saved enough.”

For a period of time, Lutie believes in the basic concept of the American Dream: that hard work and careful planning can lead to financial success. She absorbs this mentality during her time working with the Chandlers and seeing their success. She comes to realize later, however, that different rules apply for African-Americans, and the equation for success is not so simple. 

“Dear Lutie: You better come home. Jim’s been carrying on with another woman. Pop.”

With these words, Lutie learns that her husband is cheating on her, thus initiating the tragedy to come. The concision of her father’s letter reflects a complete lack of surprise, indicating that this type of occurrence was not so out of the ordinary. Indeed, it is delivered in the same mundane way someone would write about the weather, foreshadowing the lack of empathy Lutie will receive from everyone around her.

“It’s also that you’re afraid that if he’s shining shoes at eight, he will be washing windows at sixteen and running an elevator at twenty-one, and go on doing that for the rest of his life.”

Lutie fears the limited prospects for Bub’s future. Because he is a black boy from a poor neighborhood, she knows that the types of jobs available to him are limited. She worries that if he settles for the same type of work he sees his peers engage in, he’ll live down to these lowered expectations his whole life. 

“She had stayed with the others because a woman by herself didn’t stand much chance; and because it was too lonely living by herself in a rented room.”

Min reflects on her romantic history, aware that most of her relationships were based on convenience, rather than love or affection. A woman like Min faces little chance for success on her own. Therefore, Min and many women like her settle for destructive relationships simply so they don’t have to navigate the harsh world alone.

“Hence to him a cross was an alarming and unpleasant object, for it was symbol of power.”

When he views the cross that Min has hung in their room, Jones becomes filled with fear. Though he’s not a religious person, the cross reminds him of his own lowly place in the world. This reveals that Jones’ attempt to possess Lutie is not only based on passion, but on an attempt to maintain power over others, a power he lacks in his own life. The cross indicates just how insignificant he truly is.

“She was going there so that she could for a moment capture the illusion of having some of the things that she lacked.”

Lutie goes to the Junto because it offers sanctuary from the harsh realities of being black in America. Inside, she is not demeaned nor made to feel small. She’s not just capturing the illusion of having money or leisure time, but also of having camaraderie and community in a city that can be so isolating.

“‘There’s plenty of money to be made in Harlem if you know how.’”

Boots Smithbucks the conventional wisdom regarding the opportunity for African-Americans to make money, offering that Harlem has these chances, if one is willing to look hard enough. Because African-Americans are denied many of the traditional routes to wealth, they must forge other paths, and Boots’ quote, and his and other’s behavior, indicate that these paths may veer toward the illicit. The question is whether Lutie is willing to do what it takes to make this type of money.

“This world was one of great contrasts, she thought, and if the richest part of it was to be fenced off so that people like herself could only look at it with no expectation of ever being able to get inside it, then it would be better to have been born blind so you couldn’t see it, born deaf so you couldn’t hear it, born with no sense of touch so you couldn’t feel it.”

Lutie expresses the pain and frustration of knowing that she has not been given the same chances in life as most others, simply because of her race and gender. The disparity between rich and poor, black and white, is almost too much to bear. It’s even worse that she’s forced to be constantly exposed to this disparity, such as by working in the Chandler home. Lutie thinks that it would’ve been better to be ignorant of the whole situation than to be so close to it and know she’ll never be able to live that kind of life, no matter how hard she tries.

“She waited for his next words with a wincing feeling, thinking it was like having an old wound that had never healed and you could see someone about to knock against it and it was too late to get out of the way, and there was that horrible tiny split second of time when you waited for the contact, anticipating the pain and quivering away from it before it actually started.”

As Lutie sits in Boots’ car after it’s pulled over by the police, she waits with dread for the approach of the officer. The legacy of prejudice and brutality by the police against African-Americans has left her terrified and emotionally scarred, creating a figurative “wound” that refuses to heal. The thought of how the police might treat them because they are black fills her with palpable fear.

“It seemed to her their whole lives revolved around the price of things and as each week crawled by she grew a little more nervous, a little more impatient and irritable.”

Lutie is self-aware that her obsession with money and the cost of everyday goods has made her a negative force in her household. The burden of day-to-day living, as she attempts to maintain a family on paltry wages, creates a grinding sense of anxiety that bleeds into her every interaction.

“Some of them were coming home from work, from church meetings, from lodge meetings, and some of them were not coming from anywhere or going anywhere, they were merely deferring the moment when they would have to enter their small crowded rooms for the night.”

Lutie’s street is filled with people walking to and fro. There are those who have an actual destination and purpose, and those who have no other purpose than to pass time before they have to retreat to their small, sad apartments. The street, though it may be dirty or even dangerous, provides a small measure of comfort for those who would rather not be alone. 

“Though she sang the words of the song, it was of something entirely different that she was thinking and putting into the music: she was leaving the street with its dark hallways, its mean, shabby rooms; she was taking Bub away with her to a place where there were no Mrs. Hedges, no resigned and disillusioned little girls, no half-human creatures like the Super.”

The thought of becoming a professional singer and having the means to leave her current situation inspires Lutie to dream of a life where she does not face the same problems and dangers as she currently does. Her voice could be a way to break free from the struggle, and she uses this as motivation. 

“She could smell her hair burning, smell her flesh burning, and still she struggled, determined that she would force her body through the narrow window, that she would make the very stones of the foundation give until the window opening would in turn give way.”

Trapped in a burning building that ultimately takes the lives of all the other residents, Mrs. Hedges is driven by a dogged desire to survive that forces her to push herself through a small opening despite the pain. Though the fire permanently disfigures her, she is alive. This will for survival defines Mrs. Hedges in all that she does; she is driven by an internal strength that few can understand. 

“There were so many people passing by, so many people with burdens too heavy for them, young ones who were lost, old ones who had given up all hope, middle-aged ones broken and lost like the young ones, and she learned a lot just from looking at them.”

Lutie’s street provides an excellent vantage point for people-watching. Lutie notices the way that many of the residents have been damaged by life, regardless of their age. One of her most fervent hopes is to avoid the same fate as the rest of those who trod listlessly up and down the street. She’s given her life a sense of purpose that she hopes will keep her from being both lost and broken. 

“And they hate Germans, but they hate me worse.”

In conversation with Junto, Boots reveals why he does not want to join the army and fight the Nazis. He feels no true sense of patriotism, as America is a country that does not treat all of its citizens equally. Boots feels no desire to protect a country in which most of the citizens fear him, an American citizen, more than the German enemy. 

“Others plodded past slowly with their heads down as though already tired because the burden of the day’s work had settled about their shoulders, weighing them down before they had even begun it.”

Jones notices both the literal and figurative burdens carried by the citizens of the street. While many carry bags and groceries, others are weighed down by their very existence, by the crushing day-to-day strain of low-wage work and little respect. They do not even need to live through the day to know how difficult it will be; instead, they have come to accept a life of struggle and disappointment.

“Living here is like living in a structure that has a roof, but no partitions, so that privacy is destroyed, and even the sound of one’s breathing becomes a known, familiar thing to each and every tenant.”

When Lutie hears her neighbors fighting yet again, she reflects upon the nature of living in such squalid surroundings. They can hear each other’s conversations and daily routines, and so truly have no privacy, living out even quiet moments in the company of neighbors. This lack of privacy adds yet another stressor to their already demanding lives. 

“He’d never acquired the knack of small talk and after a while his silence would weigh on them so heavily that the conversation would slow up, grow halting, and then die completely.”

Jones knows that he does not have a friendly, amenable personality and that others see him as awkward, strange, and even menacing. This self-awareness does not make him feel any better, however. He longs to be accepted by broader society, but lacks the ability to create any meaningful connection to others. His disposition and experiences have left him as a perpetual outsider, one who uses violence and manipulation to get what he wants from others.

“It was always the mother’s fault when a kid got into trouble, because it meant she’d failed the kid somewhere.”

After Bub is arrested for mail fraud, Lutie can’t shake the guilt that it is her fault. She thinks back to her constant obsession with money, and how that could have convinced Bub to commit illegal acts to help the family out. Though many of the factors that have led to her situation are out of her control, Lutie cannot help feeling like it is her fault, and that she could have been there more for Bub.

“It is as though he were a piece of that dirty street itself, tangible, close at hand, within reach.”

After Boots propositions Lutie on behalf of Junto, Lutie becomes filled with rage. She longs to strike out at Junto, whom she compares to the street itself, in the way that both have suppressed her, have kept her trapped and unable to have agency over her own life. Junto represents the larger forces that have held Lutie back, as he is more powerful than her and seeks to take advantage of her because of that. Junto becomes the concrete symbol of these abstract forces. 

“And all the time she was thinking, Junto has a brick in his hand. Just one brick. The final one needed to complete the wall that had been building up around her for years, and when that one last brick was shoved in place, she would be completely walled in.”

Though Lutie rejects Junto’s advances, she knows that he still holds the power to control her. She has felt trapped within her life for a long time, and these bricks represent the numerous ways in which Junto and men like him have kept her in her place, unable to achieve her dreams. She sees little room for escape from her situation, and worries that rejecting Junto will mean any chance she had for a bright future would be immediately ruined.

“‘One way,’ she echoed. Yes, a one-way ticket, she thought. I’ve had one since the day I was born.”

After murdering Boots, Lutie decides to flee to Chicago. She feels a sense of inevitability about her escape, as though every action has led up to this murder and her fleeing from the life she created. She was unable to escape the dreadful fate that she knew awaited her as a black woman in America, no matter how much she tried.