![]() Mae, who is superstitious, realizes that it is Friday the 13 and thinks about taking off work. He dresses slowly, noticing the soreness of his legs, which rarely get a substantial reprieve from work. Johnson chastises Mae for speaking so morbidly early in the morning but also considers it funny. Mae, his wife, tells him jokingly that he looks like he is wrapped in a winding sheet, or dressing for a dead body. The story begins, describing Johnson lying in bed trying to enjoy his final moments of peace before a long shift at his workplace, a factory assembly line. The short story characterizes the kind of self-destructive anger that pervaded black communities during the Jim Crow segregation era. The husband, Johnson, internalizes his own marginalized state, clouding his judgment and leading him to abuse his wife. ![]() ![]() Taking place in an urban ghetto in the mid-1900s, African-American author Ann Petry’s short story “Like a Winding Sheet” (1945) follows an impoverished black couple, observing the prejudices and injustices they face. ![]()
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