An archetypal hero is someone who has a starting point meaning how their adventure begins, a midpoint which means what happened while they are on their adventure, and an ending point which means their return and how they view themselves now. Luite portrays these characteristics in the book The Street by: Ann Petry, Luite tries to help people before she helps herself, she meets a new man who she thinks things will get better with, but after everything that Lutie had been through things don’t really get better. Over the course of the story Lutie realizes her flaws as a person and tries to mend them, but in the nd it is unsuccessful.
In life everybody seems to be throwing Lutie Johnson some kind of problem, but she tries to stay positive and make everything better for other people before herself. One way Lutie shows this is when she is walking on the street she sees that her son, Bub is shoe shining. Bub thinks that he is doing the right thing by earning more money for himself and Lutie, but is oblivious to the fact that Lutie doesn’t want to see Bub out on the street. To get Bub back on the street “she slapped him sharply across the face and said you get in the house now” (66-67).
Lutie also had problems with her family, her ather is an alcoholic who ruined Cities chances of getting a little more income. Pops ruined her chances with the foster kids because the state had to come and get them back. This would have given Lutie a little more income but was unable too because of her father. One time the kids were scared ” Pop was very drunk.. The kids were upstairs crying. ” (178) This was when Jim was making sure everything was going to be ok, ” Jim took a half-hour to persuade the cops to not lock everybody up. ” (179) Finally Mrs.
Hedges is always asking Lutie if she wants to work for her. This means that she will sleep with other men for money. Lutie has never done that and every time that Mrs Hedges brings it up to Lutie she always says no. Lutie knows that she needs money but, she knows that she would never sleep with white men for money either. She can’t win in this situation because even though she needs all this money for her and Bub to live a comfortable life, she can’t afford too and she won’t take Mrs hedges up on her offer. One time Mrs hedges would keep asking Lutie “you married Dearie? “If you ever need a job you can always call me. ” (76) Mrs. Hedges is very presumptuous, Luties answer is always no, but that was never good for Mrs. Hedges she always asked Lutie. Lutie realizes that she needs to help herself out, but she thinks that if she helps other people she can run from her problems. One night Lutie goes out to Junto’s bar and meets a new man named Boots.
When Lutie meets boots she automatically is attracted to him. This is because she says she is going to go home but when Boots offers her a drink she takes him up on it, “How about another drink? “Make it a beer please. ” (150) She knows that she should go home to her child but ends up going for a ride with him in his card. She knows that going into this she has to be careful because she already got hurt once so she is lso very timid to stay with him. Boots is a dangerous character. Boots has a way about him that is very mysterious. when him and Lutie were going home he was speeding going down a very twisty road. Lutie was elusive to how he was driving she didn’t understand why he was driving like that and if he was driving for the fun of it.
He got pulled over by the cops and when the cops pulled him over he gave money to the cops “Lutie couldn’t tell, but it looked like he pulled out a bill from his wallet. ” (166) and they told him to be on his way. Also Boots tells Lutie to meet him in certain places and to wear certain things. Luite agrees to his but it starts to go down hill toward the end. Boots had a righteousness about him which made Lutie both intrigued, but also timid. Finally, Boots gets Lutie a job at the bar for singing with his dancing group. Lutie had an aptitude for singing, she has a knack for singing and what she was doing.
This is good for Lutie because she thinks that she is able go and sing which she loves to do. The only problem with this was that Boots didn’t tell Lucy that she wasn’t actually going to get paid for 6 weeks into the job, in fact he said “you don’t have to be poor anymore. Not after tonight. ” (225) Lutie couldn’t do that because she needed o get paid now. She also felt that Boots had lied to her so she broke things off with Boots. She was very stern with Boots that she needed the money but he seemed not to give her the whole truth.
Boots was good guy for Lutie for making her happy but he got in the way of thinking clearly for herself and for Bub. Lutie has been through so much in this story that she finally realizes that maybe it’s just been too much and nothing will get better. She forgets that she is a parent does not always pay attention to Bub. When she was at the bar all that time she realized that Bub was sleeping with the lights on when she came ome she would always have to turn the light off. When she asked Bub about sleeping with the light son and if he was scared he would always say no.
Lutie realized that she is missing things from Bub’s life and not really seeing what is going on. Lutie finally asked Bub what was going on “You alright Hun? ” (216) Bub would always answer with a yes but after a lot of pondering Lutie knew that he was lying. Also Bub had been working with the sup from the mail carrier and he was sending all the mall and collecting it. Jones says that he was going to help the police catch the bad guys. When the police actually come and question Jones he blames it all on Bub “There’s a kid that lives in this house it’s him. (382) There is a fine to keep bub out of children’s shelter.
The fine was $200 that Lutie did not have. Lutie really wanted Bub back so she called Boots because she thought that Boots would have the $200 bucks. Boot said he would have the money be tomorrow he was very lament toward the situation. when he came to Luties home he came with Junto. Boot said that in order to get the $200 bucks all she would have to do is please Junto, this meant that sleep with Junto. Lutie said no and that ended up with Boot sand Lutie getting into a fight and Lutie winging and candle holder at Boots in the head killing him.
Lutie didn’t know what to do so she ran. She ran and got a one way train ticket to chicago she needed to get out of Harlem “She decided that Chicago was not to far and very big. ” (434) Lutie needed to get out of harlem and this was her one chance. Lutie realizes her flaws as a person and tries to mend them, but in the end is unsuccessful. Lutie is a very melancholy person who tried her best to make everybody happy and try to get everything to be perfect but in the end it didn’t turn out the way she had hoped and she had lost everything.
