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 voice in The Street, as it responds to the values of the dominant white culture.

In the following essay, Wurst shows that Lutie, the protagonist of The Street, is doomed to failure when she tries to model herself on Benjamin Franklin, a white male with very different cultural values and expectations.

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.

In the following essay, Barry notes that Petry has a cyclical view of history but at the same time a sense of optimism even in the face of racism, classism, and sexism.

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 urban novel.

In the following essay, Thomson uses feminist theory to argue that the character of Mrs. Hedges in The Street repudiates most of the myths which relegate disabled women to passive roles.

In the following essay, Holladay deconstructs the narrative of Country Place, stressing the interdependence of the characters and the illusory nature of their reality.

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 black female experience.

In the following essay, Weir discusses Petry's novel The Narrows, its indebtedness to Hawthorne, Wright, and other sources, and its clear portrayal of aspects of African-American culture.

In the following essay, a black feminist critic urges a re-evaluation of Petry's The Narrows, a novel the critic thinks has been underrated by male critics since the 1950s.

In the following essay, Washington analyzes the style, structure, and characterization in the stories in Miss Muriel and Other Stories and urges more critical attention to Petry's works.

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.

In the following essay, Lattin says that readers should re-evaluate Petry's works as important critiques of traditional American values.

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 prejudice create people's social milieu.

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 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 Petry moves beyond the naturalism of Wright and Chester Himes to debunk myths about African-Americans and American culture.

In the following essay, Madden offers an overall critique of the short story “The Witness,” stressing Petry's insights into the plight of African-Americans living in primarily white small towns.

One of the most noteworthy examples of sociology transformed into art is Ann Petry's story, "In Darkness and Confusion" (1947), which recreates the Harlem riot of 1943…. What is most striking about the story, however, is that within the narrative itself a similar transformation occurs. What begins as a riot ends as a traumatic experience which transmutes the inarticulate and patient protagonist into an enraged and aggressive one. The transformation thus moves beyond the levels of...

In the following excerpt from an essay on Petry, Nella Larsen, and Zora Neale Hurston, Gebhard recommends The Street to high school readers who want to understand the search for black cultural identity.

[The Street] follows the tradition of hard-hitting social commentary which characterized the Richard Wright school of naturalistic protest writing. The Street is perhaps the best novel to come from the followers of Wright. [Miss Petry's] last full-length adult novel, The Narrows …, depicts Negro life in a small New England city, a subject not often treated in black writing. (p. 193) A depressing work, The Street follows the thesis implied by this type of naturalistic writing: namely, that the ...

There is no longer any doubt about it. The author of "The Street," "Country Place," and now "The Narrows" is a neighborhood novelist…. "The Narrows," whose history and way of life [Ann Petry] chronicles in her newest novel, is the Negro area … in a New England town…. A novel about Negroes by a Negro novelist and concerned, in the last analysis, with racial conflict, "The Narrows" somehow resists classification as a &#...