28 pages • 56 minutes read
Like a Winding Sheet
A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Poverty and Economic Exploitation
Poverty and economic exploitation, fueled by racist social structures, is a key theme in “Like A Winding Sheet.” Dire economic conditions form the backdrop of the story’s heightened tension, as Johnson’s emotional changes throughout the story are all rooted in the exploitative conditions that he must navigate.
As a Black man in the 1940s, Johnson is unprotected by labor laws or fair workplace standards. As a result, he is in constant pain from an unsustainable sleep schedule and physical exertion within the factory: “He had to force himself to struggle past the out-going workers, punch the time clock, and get the little cart he pushed around all night […]” (Paragraph 22). The white upper classes often managed and owned factories during this time, and bosses were able to exploit Black workers who had little economic power. This period of time followed the Harlem Renaissance, which saw a growth in Black cultural influence. Riding on the coattails of this established success in Harlem, many Black individuals were pushed into poverty and poor conditions (Collier A. “Quick History of Harlem.” Harlem America).
Poverty and economic exploitation are further elucidated as Johnson continues to navigate the city during and after work. Throughout the night, he confronts two white women who wield power over him: the foreman of his factory, and the girl serving coffee in the restaurant. Although these figures have little power compared to the factory or restaurant owners, they nevertheless wield an implicit power over Johnson due to their race and their economic stature. Mrs. Scott, the foreman, is above Johnson in the hierarchy of the factory and earns more than him; the girl in the restaurant serves coffee, which Johnson sees as a key material to his own happiness once he leaves work. These power imbalances, a slight as the coffee server and as significant as the foreman, in Johnson’s economic world point to the broader system of inequality that is fueled by racist prejudice, in which white people own the means of production and Black workers are exploited economically and socially.
Intention Versus Emotion
Throughout the story, Johnson deals with a central internal struggle: the dissonance between who he wants to be and who he actually is. His inner struggles illustrate how intentions are often very different from actual behavior and how behavior is deeply fueled by strong emotions. The theme Intention Versus Emotion, then, articulates how strong, visceral emotions can cause people to depart in extreme ways from their intended behavior.
Throughout the story, Johnson holds true to a central characteristic: that he does not hit women. Throughout multiple interactions with women, he makes intentional choices not to act out violently, despite strong urges to do so. In fact, his intentions to not strike women are so critical to Johnson’s self-perception that they are baked into his moral compass: “He wasn’t made that way” (Paragraph 21), writes Petry as she describes this fundamental aspect of Johnson’s personality.
As the story progresses, however, this foundational characteristic is called into question. Johnson’s restraint ultimately has a limit, and he breaks his internal promise not to hit women when he falls into a violent rage against his wife. Johnson shows remarkable adherence to his principles up until this final scene, as when, for instance, he considers the reasons why it’s wrong to hit women: “A woman couldn’t hit back the same way a man did” (Paragraph 20). Yet, his principles dissolve in the face of the most important woman in his life—his wife, who is merely a bystander to Johnson’s rage.
Johnson’s well-intentioned principles are not enough to curtail his actual behavior. Instead, he succumbs to the strength of his rage, which has been building all night until the final apex and release of violence. His behavior, and the way in which his tension rises and strains throughout the entire story until he is unable to withstand it, show that resolve and intent are often not enough when dealing with instability and emotional turmoil. Instead, the emotion blinds Johnson and dims all resolve and intent—his principles are erased as he allows the emotion to overtake his moral compass.
Gendered Violence
Johnson’s interactions with women serve as critical instances in the build-up of his rage. These interactions suggest that, beyond the racial and economic dynamics of life in New York City and Harlem, there is also a key dynamic of gender relations working below the surface. In a heterosexual relationship—as in that of Johnson and Mae—domestic violence is often derived from physical power imbalances between men and women, along with heightened emotions that become uncontrollable in moments of extreme tension. As the domestic violence scene at the end of the story suggests, gendered violence within households is often a function of the wider fabric of individuals’ lives.
Mae is a critical component to the gendered violence theme because she shows just how vulnerable women can be within exploitative socioeconomic conditions—especially, in this case, Black women whose partners also feel the psychological burdens of racial discrepancies within society. The violent gendered dynamic between Mae and Johnson in the story illustrates how racism and socioeconomic inequalities permeate every facet of life. In this instance, Mae becomes the outlet of Johnson’s rage and, because she is a woman in a patriarchal society that devalues women and promotes physical strength and masculinity, she is an easy target for his physical violence. In Johnson’s subconscious, he resents Mae’s feminine behaviors and resultingly perceives her as weak, passive, and vulnerable, a perception that contributes to the way in which he beats her so violently a moment later.
The gendered nature of Johnson’s violent outburst is especially apparent when considering how Johnson fixates on elements that are particular to Mae’s femininity. In the pivotal final scene, Mae performs a series of minor, subconscious behaviors that directly contribute to Johnson’s rising tension. She twirls her hair in the same way as the girl who served coffee in the restaurant, to which Johnson has a visceral reaction: “He winced away from the gesture” (Paragraph 74). Then, Johnson resents Mae’s concern over her appearance, when she asks him not to dirty the overalls that she wears to work. He thinks, “Besides the overalls were already wrinkled and dirty” (Paragraph 78), and his fury grows at the innocuous fact that Mae has worn the trousers all week. These small behaviors on Mae’s part all contribute to her feminine essence—her appearance, her long hair, the way in which she “admired her reflection in the mirror over the dresser” (Paragraph 69)—and they augment Johnson’s rage despite their innocent nature. The gender imbalances within this intimate relationship become inseparable from the structural racism that is the root cause of Johnson’s rage, and Gendered Violence is closely intertwined with the social stresses of inequality that Johnson subsequently brings into his marriage.
Unlock all 28 pages of this Study GuidePlus, gain access to 8,800+ more expert-written Study Guides.
Including features:
Related Titles
By Ann Petry
