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Like A Winding Sheet - College Papers

Like A Winding Sheet

In Ann Petry’s 1945 short story "". Johnson is a black male struggling with racism and societal pressures. Johnson faces many challenges. As one reads, one cannot help but feel his anger, frustration and tenseness. Petry tells it in the following way, "The knowledge that he had struck her seeped through him slowly and he was appalled but he couldn’t drag his hands away from her face." Petry goes on further to tell us, "He had lost all control over his hands." This rage Johnson is experiencing is described as a "winding sheet".
Johnson’s everyday routine causes anger and frustration to build up inside him. Get up, go to work and come home; get ...

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was almost unbearable.
As Johnson’s character develops throughout this short story, some key events push him to his limit and cause him to lose control. First, an incident with his white female boss, his so-called "forelady", in which she called him a "nigger". Second, Johnson is standing in line for a cup of coffee. As soon as he is at the coffee urn to receive a cup of coffee the white waitress says, "No more coffee for awhile." Third, Johnson arrives at home and his wife Mae has the radio turned up extremely loud. She is obnoxiously chewing her gum and accuses Johnson of picking on her. Further, she yells at him for sitting in his chair and wrinkling her overalls lying over the back of the chair. Giggly, she goes on further saying, "You’re nothing but an old hungry nigger trying to act tough and…." This is enough to drive him to his limit and strike Mae uncontrollably.
Johnson’s struggle with his job and society makes it easy ...

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Like A Winding Sheet. (2007, January 14). Retrieved January 18, 2026, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Like-A-Winding-Sheet/58689

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"Like A Winding Sheet." Essayworld.com. January 14, 2007. Accessed January 18, 2026. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Like-A-Winding-Sheet/58689.

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PAPER DETAILS

Added: 1/14/2007 01:44:41 PM
Category: English
Type: Free Paper
Words: 453
Pages: 2

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