Racial Inequality Theme Analysis

“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 of his race. These events trigger a deep and ultimately uncontrollable anger in Johnson, which erupts at the story’s climax, when he returns home and violently beats his wife, Mae, quite possibly to death. But crucially, Petry seeks to present Johnson to the reader as a character worthy of sympathy, or at least pity. While Mae is easily identifiable as the greatest victim of the story, Petry is also interested in depicting the psychological trauma of systemic racism that Johnson must endure. Through “Like a Winding Sheet,” Petry illustrates just how ever-present discrimination is in even the most ordinary aspects of Johnson’s life, and suggests how damaging this kind of experience can be.

Throughout the story, Johnson experiences racial alienation in even the most intimate corners of his life. One of the most poignant moments showing the pervasiveness of racism comes as Johnson lies in bed, noticing the contrast of his skin with the whiteness of the bedsheet. Throughout the story Petry refers to Johnson’s exhaustion: “He had to force himself to struggle past the outgoing workers, punch the time clock, and get the little cart he pushed around all night, because he kept toying with the idea of going home and getting back in bed.” The bed is in many ways Johnson’s place of sanctuary, representing a space in which to escape the drudgery and physical exertions associated with his job. But perhaps more importantly, this is an intimate space, shared only between himself and Mae. The bed in this sense should offer Johnson the opportunity to shut out the outside world and feel loved and accepted, in sharp contrast with the public spaces explored in the rest of the story, such as the plant and the restaurant, in which Johnson is continually the object of scrutiny. Instead, lying in bed, “[Johnson] looked at his arms silhouetted against the white of the sheets. They were inky black by contrast.” Petry’s interplay of color here suggests that Johnson’s experience of social alienation because of his race permeates even this most intimate and everyday space.

The interaction between Johnson and the forewoman at the plant also highlights how racism seeps into every aspect of Johnson’s life, as the forewoman turns the mundane instance of an employee arriving late to work into a racially charged confrontation. The forewoman uses this opportunity to attempt to degrade Johnson, using racial slurs and grouping Johnson with the other African American employees, spitting out: “And the niggers is the worse. I don’t care what’s wrong with your legs. You get in here on time. I’m sick of you niggers—” Prior to this, however, she notes: “Half this shift comes in late.” Evidently this is a larger problem at the plant that involves many employees, but the forewoman chooses to focus on the African American workers, alienating Johnson from the rest of his co-workers and suggesting that his race is connected to his performance at work. The banality of Johnson’s offence thus is far out of proportion to the lengths to which he is forced to defend himself. “You got the right to cuss me four ways to Sunday but I ain’t letting nobody call me a nigger,” he says, scornfully repeating the same slur the forewoman used. He is driven to defending his fundamental racial identity over such a minor issue, suggesting again how completely his social alienation has permeated every aspect of his life.

But Petry isn’t straightforwardly suggesting that the whole of white society is seeking to punish Johnson for being African American in the same way that the forewoman is. Instead, Johnson’s experience of finding discrimination in seemingly every aspect of his life motivates him to assume the influence of racism, even when it is not present. When Johnson goes to a restaurant to order coffee and the white waitress insists that there isn’t any more coffee, he assumes that her behavior is simply racist. However, as Johnson walks away, seething, Petry makes it clear that the waitress was instead being truthful: “When he went out the door he didn’t look back. If he had he would have seen the flickering blue flame under the shiny coffee urn being extinguished.” At this point in the narrative, Johnson has internalized his racial struggle to such a degree that Petry suggests he is almost blind to reality; it has permeated his existence so deeply that he can no longer identify what is discrimination and what isn’t. Petry’s point here is tragic in its irony. She is essentially pointing out that the trauma of racism is self-perpetuating. No matter how desperately someone wants to escape it, once they’ve internalized the idea that everywhere they turn they will be met with hatred, it’s hard not to feel that that hatred is ever-present, whether it is or not. Johnson’s frequent experiences of genuine racism consume him and lead him to feel that every part of his experience, no matter how small, is dominated by his race.