March 10, 1999English 102Pressure from the WomenIn “Like a Winding Sheet” Anne Petry chooses not to fully develop the femalecharacters of the story but still used them as a major part of the story to bring on theclimax. Petry chose to do this by using each woman’s appearance and in some cases theirrank in society to bring out the violent doings of Johnson.
Petry first used Johnson’s boss as a crisis in the plot. Johnson was described as aman in pain and being tired which is assumed by the reader was from working the longhours at work. After repeatedly being late to work his boss finally scolds him for arrivingso late, making her the first lady to start the conflict in the story. By Johnson’s bossyelling at him he becomes angered as thoughts of striking his white, female boss enter hismind. The only things that keeps Johnson from hitting the boss was that it was extremelyimmoral to hit a woman, and the fact that she is a superior to him as his boss. The second woman in the story to create a complication in the story was the nextyoung white girl who is working at the coffee shop.
On his way home from work Johnsonstopped at the coffee shop for the obvious cup of coffee. Johnson had waited in line forquite a while for the cup of coffee but when he finally got to the front for his coffee, theyoung white girl said that they were out of coffee. When she told Johnson this he didn’tthink that she did it in a polite manner at all. Johnson thought that he deserved morerespect due to him being an elder to the girl, he felt that the girl didn’t show this respect. Once again Johnson had thoughts of striking the young girl but for morality reasons, herefrained.
The final woman was the one that pushed the story to its’ climax. Johnsonreturned home a very tired and aggravated man from working and the disrespectfulwomen through out the day. This woman happened to be his wife Mae, waiting forJohnson at home. Mae verbally abused him similarly to what his boss had done. His wifetold him that he was being a “tough old nigger,” and continued with similar statements.
Although her meaning of the term wasn’t as serious as the bosses was, it still added toJohnson’s pressure. Once again the thoughts of raising a hand and striking the woman passed throughhis mind. This time Johnson couldn’t refrain from striking his “abuser. ” Although theperson was again a woman, the pressure on the man had been too much, and he releasedall of his pressure.
All the women throughout the day contributed to the pressure that theman had building inside which finally became too much for Johnson to contain.
