Ann Petry Summary

In many respects Ann Petry is a study in contrast. She came from a tiny town in New England to Harlem in 1938. She spent some years in Harlem learning of its people and transmitting their yearnings, f... Read more

In the following essay, Holladay explores the depiction of racial, socioeconomic, and sexual prejudice in a small community in Ann Petry's “Miss Muriel.” In Miss Muriel and Oth... Read more

In the following essay, Lattin says that readers should re-evaluate Petry's works as important critiques of traditional American values. Ann Petry's fiction too often has been mutilat... Read more

In the following excerpt from a chapter entitled “Richard Wright and the Triumph of Naturalism” in his full-length study of the history of the African-American novel, Bell claims that Pe... Read more

In the following essay, the author provides a post-structuralist reading of The Street, with emphasis on the ways in which Petry's protagonist casts the American Dream in the context of her own... Read more

In the following essay, Holladay suggests that the social prejudices seen in the suitors in “Miss Muriel” may actually act as creative forces in a world in which various forms of prejudi... Read more

In the following essay, the author notes that Petry's effective use of sensory detail in The Street, unusual in a naturalistic novel, can be favorably compared with that of other masters of the... Read more

In the following essay, Brody dwells on the image of the black female in “The Winding Sheet,” applying black feminist theory to concepts of race and gender. When do we start to see im... Read more

In the following essay, Harris urges more critical attention to Tituba of Salem Village and explores the ways in which Tituba and other characters adopt and respond to authority. When we think of t... Read more

In this chapter from his full-length, deconstructive study of the concept of “value” as it applies to racial blackness, Barrett explores the symbolic value of Lutie's singing voic... Read more

Critical Essay by Arna Bontemps There is no longer any doubt about it. The author of "The Street," "Country Place," and now "The Narrows" is a neighborhood n... Read more

Critical Essay by Arthur P. Davis [The Street] follows the tradition of hard-hitting social commentary which characterized the Richard Wright school of naturalistic protest writing. The Street is per... Read more