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Like a Winding Sheet
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Like a Winding Sheet, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racial Inequality
“Like a Winding Sheet” follows a single day in the life of Johnson, a working-class African American man. As Johnson arrives late for his night shift at an unspecified “plant,” the forewoman immediately disciplines him and pelts him with verbal abuse and racial slurs. After his shift is over, Johnson follows his co-workers into a restaurant, but a white waitress casually tells him they’re out of coffee, and Johnson believes this is on account…
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Racism, Alienation, and Abuse
One of the questions Petry is most interested in asking over the course of “Like a Winding Sheet” is that of what causes people behave the way they do. The story's shocking conclusion, in which the protagonist, Johnson, beats his wife, Mae, very likely to death, is in direct contrast to the story's opening. The reader is introduced to Johnson through his loving thoughts of Mae, and when she later annoys him through…
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Gender and Race
In “Like a Winding Sheet,” Petry demonstrates just how closely entangled issues of race and gender can be. As the narrative unfolds, Johnson, the protagonist, endures a racially antagonistic encounter with his plant's white forewoman, and believes he is denied coffee by a white waitress on account of his race. He ultimately beats his wife, Mae, (possibly to death) for playfully echoing these same racist sentiments. Both of Johnson’s interactions with white…
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