Abstract: With a masterful depiction of her characters' subtle psyche, Ann Petry creates a complex and changing psychic space and invents a unique style of psychological narrative in The Street. As a sober onlooker, she jots down all the social realities and human conditions she has witnessed and experienced in Harlem and exhibits the psychic paths of her characters through the representation of memory images. What the visual, auditory, and motion mental imagery in her work reveals is that the interlocking of physical and monetary desires makes people's psyche seem contradictory and abnormal, thus disclosing the absurdity and irrationality of a racist society. The interplay between the four aspects of the situational psyche, namely, fetishism, the adverse-fortune mentality, psychological conflicts, and delusions, deconstructs the mental state of the emotion, will and motivation of the black people in America, revealing their survival crisis in the racist environment, and articulating the tremendous influence and restrictive power of situational forces upon human dignity and human nature.

Key words: Ann Lane Petry, The Street, psychological narrative, memory image, mental image