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Essay / The Theme of Struggle for Survival in Angela's Ashes and The Street for survival. Unlike other survival-themed works, these focus specifically on the urban poor. Both McCourt and Petry use characters, events, and settings to develop this theme in their stories. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The Street excerpt, like most survival stories, begins by introducing a chaotic, unstoppable force of nature that wreaks havoc on people's lives. This ruthless antagonist of The Street, however, is only the cold wind of the North. The wind "made the pieces of paper dance high in the air, so that a barrage of paper swirled in the faces of the people in the street... He did all he could to discourage the people who were walking in the street" . Symbolic Characteristics of the Wind and Characters in "Angela's Ashes and The Street" Basically, the wind is just the neighborhood bully who goes around and harms everyone he meets. He's a seriously lame antagonist. Anywhere else, this wind would be little more than a detail in the background. However, on 116th Street, the wind “found all the dirt, dust and grime on the sidewalk and kicked them up so that the dirt got into their noses, making it difficult to breathe; the dust got into their eyes and blinded them; and the sand stung their skin. He wrapped newspaper around their feet, entangling them until people were swearing deep in their throats, stamping their feet, kicking the paper. The wind blew it back again and again until they were forced to bend down and dislodge the paper with their hands.” Obviously the streets haven't been paved in years and are therefore full of gravel. To make matters worse, the people who live there don't care where they throw their trash, so the wind weaponizes that trash and uses it to flush out anyone who passes by. For a person to need to walk down a street as decrepit as this says a lot about how bad Lutie is. This is how we are introduced to our protagonist. Lutie's struggles against the paltry force of nature are the only events in this passage. Yet they are used to further define who Lutie is and allow the reader to empathize with her. The wind “pulled her eyelashes away from her eyes, so that her eyeballs were bathed in a rush of cold and she had to blink to read the words on the sign that swung above her head. Every time she thought she had the sign on point, the wind would blow it away, so she wasn't sure if it said three rooms or two rooms. In Angela's Ashes, McCourt builds his theme by employing an entire village of support. characters as well as an onslaught of events so furious that there is only time to give the most critical details of the setting. McCourt gives no physical description of his mother. Instead, he uses the whirlwind of events at the beginning of the passage to build his character: "Mom sits by the fire, shivering, and we know something is wrong when she doesn't move to smoke a cigarette" and “The bed creaks all the time.” the night with its detours and it keeps us awake with its moans of water", then, "it remains in bed, still shivering”. Of.
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