IndexSymbolic characteristics of the wind and characters in "Angela's Ashes and the Road"ConclusionWorks Cited Angela's Ashes and The Road both address the theme of the struggle for survival. Unlike other survival-themed works, these focus specifically on the poor in urban environments. McCourt and Petry both 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 Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The excerpt from The Street begins, like most survival stories, by introducing a chaotic, unstoppable force of nature that is causing chaos in people's lives. This ruthless antagonist of The Street, however, is just the cold North Wind. The wind, “made the pieces of paper dance high in the air, so that a gust of paper swirled in the faces of people on the street… It did everything it could to discourage people walking on the street.”Symbolic Characteristics of the Wind and the characters in "Angela's Ashes and the Streets" Basically the wind is just the neighborhood bully who goes around hurting everyone he meets. This is a really lame antagonist. Anywhere else this wind would be little more than a background detail. However, on 116th Street the wind “found all the dirt, dust, and grime on the sidewalk and lifted it up so that the dirt got into their noses, making it difficult to breathe; the dust entered their eyes and blinded them; and the sand stung their skin. He would wrap the paper around their feet, entangle them until people were cursing deep in their throats, stomping their feet, kicking the paper. The wind blew it back again and again until they were forced to bend down and move the paper with their hands.” Clearly the roads have not been paved for years, so they are full of sand. To make matters worse, the people who live there don't care where they throw their rubbish, so the wind uses this rubbish as a weapon by using it to hit anyone who passes by. The fact that a person needs to walk down a decrepit street like this says a lot about how ugly Lutie must be. This is how we are introduced to our protagonist. Lutie's struggles against the miserable 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 sympathize with her. The wind “blown the eyelashes from her eyes so that her eyeballs were bathed in a wave of cold and she had to blink to read the words on the sign that swayed back and forth above her head. Every time she thought she had the sign in focus, the wind blew it away from her so much so that she wasn't sure whether it said three rooms or two rooms." In Angela's Ashes, McCourt builds his theme by employing an entire village of supporting characters along with an onslaught of events so furious that there is only time to provide the most critical details about the setting. McCourt provides no physical description of his mother. Instead he uses the whirlwind of events at the beginning of the passage to build his character, "Mama sits by the fire, shivering, and we know something's wrong when she makes no move for a cigarette," and "The bed creaks all over." night with his tossing and turning and keeping us awake with his moaning for water”, then “he lies in bed, still trembling”. Evidently the mother is dying slowly and painfully, so “there is no money in the house, not even for bread in the morning.” His grandmother doesn't help them because she's an old, bitter fanatic who "is constantly scolding us because dad is.