Like a Winding Sheet
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Themes
All Themes Racial Inequality Racism, Alienation, and Abuse Gender and Race
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Johnson Mae Mrs. Scott The Waitress
Symbols
All Symbols The Bedsheet Johnson’s Hands
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Like a Winding Sheet

by

Ann Petry
Download this LitChart! (PDF)
Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Like a Winding Sheet makes teaching easy.

The Waitress Character Analysis

Johnson encounters an unnamed white waitress when he goes into a restaurant after work to get a cup of coffee. When he reaches the front of the line, she tells him that there’s no more coffee at the moment, which he interprets as a sign of her racism. She also flips her long blond hair in a way that he interprets as contemptuous. However, the narration makes it clear that if Johnson had looked back before walking away, he would have seen that the restaurant really was out of coffee and that the waitress was telling the truth. This interaction represents how discrimination has warped Johnson’s perception of the world around him, leading him to assume he is facing racial prejudice at every turn even when it is not present.

The Waitress Quotes in Like a Winding Sheet

The Like a Winding Sheet quotes below are all either spoken by The Waitress or refer to The Waitress . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racial Inequality Theme Icon
).
Like a Winding Sheet Quotes

He felt his hands begin to tingle and the tingling went all the way down to his finger tips so that he glanced down at them. They were clenched tight, hard, into fists. Then he looked at the girl again. What he wanted to do was hit her so hard that the scarlet lipstick on her mouth would smear and spread over her nose, her chin, out toward her cheeks, so hard that she would never toss her head again and refuse a man a cup of coffee because he was black.

Related Characters: Johnson, The Waitress
Related Symbols: Johnson’s Hands
Racism, Alienation, and Abuse Theme Icon
Gender and Race Theme Icon
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Waitress Quotes in Like a Winding Sheet

The Like a Winding Sheet quotes below are all either spoken by The Waitress or refer to The Waitress . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Racial Inequality Theme Icon
).
Like a Winding Sheet Quotes

He felt his hands begin to tingle and the tingling went all the way down to his finger tips so that he glanced down at them. They were clenched tight, hard, into fists. Then he looked at the girl again. What he wanted to do was hit her so hard that the scarlet lipstick on her mouth would smear and spread over her nose, her chin, out toward her cheeks, so hard that she would never toss her head again and refuse a man a cup of coffee because he was black.

Related Characters: Johnson, The Waitress
Related Symbols: Johnson’s Hands
Racism, Alienation, and Abuse Theme Icon
Gender and Race Theme Icon
Page Number: 207
Explanation and Analysis:
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