Ann Petry’s Like a Winding Sheet, Sandra Cisneros’ Woman Hollering Creek and Leslie Silko’s Ceremony

7 Pages 1831 Words

act that it is coming from the mouth of a woman is more than Johnson is prepared to handle, despite the fact that his attitude toward work is poor. There is another misunderstanding with the young woman selling coffee. As he says "coffee please" (Petry, 121)and is told "it will be awhile on the coffee" (Petry, 121), he should not have assumed it is only because of the fact that he is black but in reality it is because the young lady has to make more.
Finally, when Johnson arrives at home 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 that he is an old nigger. This is enough to drive him to his limit and to strike Mae uncontrollably. This rage Johnson is experiencing is described by Ann Petry as a “winding sheet”.
Johnson’s struggle with his job and society makes it easy for him to blame racism, when in fact, these event may not have anything to do with him being black. Probably Johnson does not know how to deal with the stress he faces. But having in mind the time era Johnson lives w...