Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

English

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Melinda Knight

Committee Member

Jeffrey Gonzalez

Committee Member

Laura Nicosia

Abstract

The Street by Ann Petry, set in Harlem in the late 1940s after World War II, reveals the socioeconomic barriers that shaped the lives of Black women. Petry’s experiences in Harlem shaped her portrayal of characters such as Lutie Johnson, Mrs. Hedges, Min, and Mary. Utilizing them, she reveals how race, gender, and class intersect to confine Black women to cycles of oppression. This marginalization is embedded in the historical context of the Great Migration, when an influx of Black Americans moved north in search of better economic and housing opportunities. However, many of the inequalities they sought to escape reappeared in new forms in the North. To establish the historical foundation of the novel, I will demonstrate how institutionalized subjugation limited employment and housing opportunities for women of color in the postwar era—conditions mirrored in Lutie’s narrative. Additionally shown is how the restricted job market for Black men forced Black women into low-wage labor, perpetuating cycles of poverty. The housing crisis in Harlem, shaped by redlining and urban decay, further contributed to the lack of educational opportunities for Black children. Petry’s portrayal of Lutie and her son Bub depicts the real-life systemic disadvantages they face, illustrating how institutional barriers obstruct social mobility. Moreover, Petry critiques the dehumanization of Black women, particularly through Mrs. Hedges, whose survival depends on her complicity with the white patriarchy. Using Freud’s concept of the uncanny, it becomes apparent that her physicality both enables and limits her social and economic mobility, thereby reinforcing cycles of Black female suppression. Finally, the novel expands on W. E. B. Du Bois’s double consciousness theory, anticipating Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concept of intersectionality. I build on these frameworks to introduce the concept of “triad consciousness,” which encompasses the intersecting identities of race, gender, womanhood and/or motherhood, constituting the heterogeneous, complex fabric of the female consciousness. Ultimately, The Street dismantles the illusion of the American Dream for Black individuals, exposing how power structures—economic, gendered, and social—corrupt the very ideals they claim to uphold. Petry’s vivid description of 116th Street Harlem serves as a testament of the systemic forces that trap not only Lutie but also the passive spectators who witness her struggle, making the novel both a personal and collective critique of American racial, gendered, and economic injustices.

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