In the 1946 novel The Street, Ann Petry utilizes effective literary devices and elements, namely personfication, selection of detail, and figurative language, in order to establish the unattractive impression about the urban setting, and how it is warning Lutie Johnson about the life that is waiting ahead of her, ultimately revealing the coldness of people in time and place in a society.

In order to establish Lutie Johnson's first impression of the street, Petry personifies the cold wind and selects strong details with the intention to strengthen the image of an unattractive, cold and boring urban setting. Petry dedicates the first three paragraphs to talk about how the wind "rattled the tops of garbage cans," how "it found every scrap of paper along street," and how it found "chicken bones and pork-chop bones" along the curb. The clever combination of personfication and selection of details displays Lutie's observation of the street and how it appears as unpleasant to her. Specifically, Petry decides to name all of what can be considered ugly (or, making the street ugly), which suggests a deeper reality that the people who live there are too cold and careless, for any reason, to think about making it a better community; too careless that even only the wind appears to be "human" and alive. The ugliness of the scene quickly shifts to the ugliness of the people, of how the people who "bent double" only care about themselves. When unconvenience comes, they "cursed deep in their throats, stamped their feet, [and] kicked." Again, Petry specifically describes this detail in order to highlight  how the people of this urban area seem to be cold and, somewhat, arrogant and furious; all the unbeauty that was exposed by the wind for Lutie to see, to witness and to consider where she really is. The cold and gloomy setting of the street is further amplified with the introduction of Lutie Johnson. For a moment, "she felt suddenly naked and bald," and "her eyeballs were bathed in a rush of coldness." This detail not only highlights Lutie's vulnerability to the surrounding setting, but also contributes to the unwelcome setting that one can see easily with their own eyes. Unlike the expectation for the urban setting to be alive and energetic, so far Lutie could only feel cold and, somewhat, creepy. The personification of the wind combined with the details can also be understood as how she has turned what could have been just a straight walk to the destination, into a journey of exploration, of observation of her surrounding, and it is safe to say the people and everything on the street has not left Lutie with a great memory at all. 

Lutie is not the only who wants to connection with the urban setting; the street is also warning her of how the cold street could also affect her life. To achieve this goal, Petry introduces the sign, with its "original coat of white paint streaked with rust," how its metal "had slowly rusted, making a dark red stain like blood." The author portrays it as a very old sign that appears to be standing there since forever, untouched, unnoticed, and ultimately deprecating with time. It is more than just a physical sign: it is a warning sign for Lutie to actually consider where she is right now, and how her decision at this moment, in this place, could turn her into what the sign is right now. But Lutie seems to understand it, and yet she still decides to proceed. After a while, Lutie is able to read the sign "rapidly." With "three rooms, steam heat, parquet floors, [and] respectable tenants," Lutie considers it to be "reasonable." The interesting syntax of writing a long list of very basic commodities, followed by a quick and rather abrupt one-word sentence contributes to the tone that is being established at the very end as uninteresting and boring. Despite how "rusted" the sign appears to be, despite how she reads it rapidly, suggesting that she has already expected what to see on the sign, highlights the harsh reality that the road ahead may be rough, boring and monochromatic, but one still has to accept and live with it. In the end, the cold and careless feeling of the street could not be more unwelcoming, but Lutie has accepted to get used to it, possibly hinting towards how her personality could shift to be like that of the people she has seen as she walks here.

To conclude, the cold treatment of the people and the surrounding in a society to one has been conveyed in the opening of the novel The Street by Ann Petry with the effective utilization of personification, selection of detail, and figurative language.