History-Jeremy

The Street was a difficult to find a particular history element in the story. The story takes place in the 1940's in Harlem so this comes after the Harlem Reniessance when the African-American community was taking on a new roll and independence which produced a new music called Jazz which became a phenominon which the older generation hated and the younger generation could not get enough of. This type of music led to a whole new scene of dancing and clubs and decpite prohibition liquor was flowing quit freely in Harlem. The novel has some parts that reflect some of the remenents of this age when Lutie wants to became and dancer and Boots talks about how he regularly performs at the Casino, a night club in Harlem During the fourties the most major event that was happening was World War II this in some ways was a bitter sweet arrival to the United States; bitter in the way that the country was at war and the draft was instated, sweet because it brought the country back from the worst economic time in the history of the country. I found it interesting that in the book that Boots one of the characters is asked if he had fought in the war or if he had been drafted, and his reply was along the lines of "Why would I want to get caught up in that mess? The Germans are doing the same thing to the Jews that the United States has done to blacks since its beginnings." This element changes the history asspect of the book and knowing that dispit the history books and the idea that World War II was supported by everyone. Boots's one simple line shows that it might not be the same especially in the black community.