![]() ![]() Junto represents Petry's deep disillusionment with the cultural myth of the American dream. Although she grew up in New England, Ann Petry lived in Harlem for several of her adult years. While often treated as a realist novel about the interior lives of its characters and their internal experiences of oppression, Ann Petry’s The Street may also be read as a powerful protest novelone with the potential to provoke specific political and social changes for the benefit of African Americans and women. It is Junto, through his secret manipulations to possess Lutie sexually, who ultimately leads Lutie to murder Junto's henchman, Boots. Ann Petry 1908-1997 African-American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and childrens author. Franklin is embodied in the text through the character Junto, named after Franklin's secret organization of the same name. Lutie fully subscribes to the belief that if she follows the adages of Benjamin Franklin by working hard and saving wisely, she will be able to achieve the dream of being financially independent and move from the tenement in which she lives on 116th Street. Lutie is confronted by racism, sexism, and classism on a daily basis in her pursuit of the American dream for herself and her son, Bub. Petry's novel is a commentary on the social injustices that confronted her character, Lutie Johnson, as a single black mother in this time period. Set in World War II era Harlem, it centers on the life of Lutie Johnson. The Street is a novel published in 1946 by African-American writer Ann Petry. ![]()
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