Ann Petry’s “Like a Winding Sheet” is the story of Johnson and Mae, a seemingly happy African American couple working and living in Harlem, New York. The story spans over the course of one day following Johnson’s life. Throughout this day he faces discrimination, which builds an anger in him, which he releases in the form of domestic abuse against his wife. Through her use of imagery, symbols, and character development Petry shows the anger discrimination can cause and how it plays into the cycle of abuse that African American women face. Petry has a prominent use of imagery to give us an idea of the scene the story is taking place in without going into superfluous detail about it. The winding sheet is part of the story’s title and is a …show more content…
In the opening scene it is Mae who makes the comparison saying that Johnson looks “like a huckleberry—in a winding sheet.” (1498) A winding sheet being the sheet that is wrapped around a corpse. This image comes back at the end of the story when Johnson is abusing his wife. As he is hitting her, the narrator says that “he thought with horror that something inside him was holding him, binding him to this act… it was like being enmeshed in a winding sheet.” (1504) This repetition makes the imagery quite striking. Here it serves to represent that feeling of disconnect her feels from his body in this manic state of anger. It could also describe how the women in the story are trapped in their lives and in that cycle of violence with no way out. The reader can also observe that Johnson’s descriptions of women throughout the work are constantly negative, which would align with the misogynistic view that most men had during the time in which the story is set. Through these descriptions we can begin to question his views on and treatment of women. During the scene in the factory he encounters the foreman who he describes as “sore about something”, …show more content…
One of the most powerful symbols in the story is the lipstick that each of the women is wearing. It serves as a common thread between all of the female characters that Johnson interacts with. It is a stereotypically feminine item and is mentioned in each of the interactions Johnson has with women. It serves as a reminder to Johnson that these people causing his anger are women and he knows “he couldn’t hit a woman.” (1500) In each interaction he speaks about the lipstick at length saying that he wanted to “hit her so hard that the scarlet lipstick on her mouth would smear.” (1502) This serves as a symbol of femininity and a reminder to Johnson that he can’t take his anger out on the people who cause it because they are white women. This symbol does nothing to stop him from abusing his wife, we see it appear again in the final scene of the story. As he unleashes his anger by brutally assaulting his wife, it is described that he hit her in the mouth—so hard that the dark red lipstick had blurred and spread.” (1504) The symbol is always present in moments of anger for him and can also serve as foreshadowing to that final scene when he abuses his wife. Another important symbol is Johnson’s clenched fists. They represent his anger at the oppression he faces from society and the lack of control he feels over his actions due to this anger. Each time he is angry
Ruth is a black slave employed by white loyalists, along with her sister, Isabel. When Ruth does not understand why they face social injustice, she turns to her sister to help her. Ruth laughs at her master, which is prohibited. Ruth’s master, Madam, then turns to beat Ruth, but instead Isabel takes the beating, “Craaack! Lightning struck from a blue sky; Madam slapped my face so hard it near threw me to the ground” (Anderson 33). When Ruth laughs at her master, her master gets extremely upset. Ruth turns to Isabel out of confusion and the master beats Isabel instead, who willingly takes the blame for her loved one. The only reason that her master can beat the girls is because they are black. This is socially unjust because Ruth and Isabel are being discriminated against just because of their race. Furthermore, when Ruth has a seizure, as she is doing chores for her master, her master comes to the conclusion that she is possessed and starts to beat her. Ruth turns to Isabel, and Isabel reacts by protecting her, “I threw myself on top of my sister. The broom came down on my back, once, twice, but it didn’t matter. I had to keep her safe until the storm passed” (Anderson 94). Ruth looks to her sister, Isabel, during times of social injustice. This is because her master is allowed to beat Ruth just because she is black, which is unjust. Isabel
It leaves the readers in an awe of silence as they deliberate and take in the powerful message of Kindred. Octavia Butler extablishes the site of trauma as adaptation and the cause as the inhumane act of slavery. Butler led her audience to question the equality not only of the past, but also the present. Developing and critically thinking about the world around us is the message that Butler wanted to convey. Are black people really free? Have blacks gained all the right that are reserved to them by constitutional law? Those answers are to be decided by each individual, but in the words of Jesse Williams, “the burdened of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander. If you have no interest in the equal rights for black people, then do not make suggestions for those who do. Sit down.”
The story also focuses in on Ruth Younger the wife of Walter Lee, it shows the place she holds in the house and the position she holds to her husband. Walter looks at Ruth as though he is her superior; he only goes to her for help when he wants to sweet talk his mama into giving him the money. Mama on the other hand holds power over her son and doesn’t allow him to treat her or any women like the way he tries to with Ruth. Women in this story show progress in women equality, but when reading you can tell there isn’t much hope and support in their fight. For example Beneatha is going to college to become a doctor and she is often doubted in succeeding all due to the fact that she is black African American woman, her going to college in general was odd in most people’s eyes at the time “a waste of money” they would say, at least that’s what her brother would say. Another example where Beneatha is degraded is when she’s with her boyfriend George Murchison whom merely just looks at her as arm
In the middle of the night, four white men storm into a cabin in the woods while four others wait outside. The cabin belongs to Alice and her mom. The four men pull out Alice’s father along with her mom, both are naked. Alice manages to scramble away. The men question Alice’s father about a pass, which allows him to visit his wife. Her father tries to explain the men about the loss of the pass but the men do not pay any attention to him. Instead they tie him to a tree and one of the white man starts to whip him for visiting his wife without the permission of Tom Weylin, the “owner” of Alice’s father. Tom Weylin forbid him to see his wife, he ordered him to choose a new wife at the plantation, so he could own their children. Since Alice’s mother is a free woman, her babies would be free as well and would be save from slavery. But her freedom “status” does not stop one of the patroller to punch her in the face and cause her to collapse to the ground.
Octavia Butler depicts how trauma not only affects the slave 's, but the slaveholders. Butler also brings attention to adaptation in her work by using a key literary devices such as foreshadowing to expose the trauma and the cause of that trauma.
“’A storm must have brought it here’. . . ‘Sadly we all looked back at the bird. A scarlet ibis! How many miles it had traveled to die like this, in our yard, beneath the bleeding tree” (154). Hurst is marking his start to illustrate two symbols, the storm and the scarlet ibis. Hurst uses parallel imagery to connect these passages and create the symbols. “The faster I walked, the faster he walked, so I began to run…I went back and found…he had been bleeding from the mouth…the vision in red before me looked very familiar” (155, 157). Hurst is creating parallels between the storm and the narrators pride and the scarlet ibis and Doodle. Hurst illustrates the storm pushing the scarlet ibis to its physical limits and he also illustrates the narrator pushing his brother to his physical limits. The narrator’s is the “storm must have brought it here,” to Doodle because like the storm, the narrator pushed Doodle to his limits. Hurst connects the scarlet ibis and Doodle increasingly throughout the text using the colors, bleeding and red. “The vision in red looked very familiar” (157). Hurst exercised “the storm,” as a symbol for the narrators pride and the ibis as a symbol for Doodle to portray pride as a storm that swept in and devastated the narrator’s
Core Question 1: Why does the author use a metaphor on page 128, paragraph 35?
There was one symbol in the story that stood out especially in my mind and that was the stripper. She was a tall blonde-haired woman with a tattoo of the American flag on her stomach. I think the stripper symbolized the perfect American white woman, something a black man can strive for all his life to obtain, but would never receive. This was a symbol of the many things that a white man could have whereas a black man could not.
In the novel, the author proposes that the African American female slave’s need to overcome three obstacles was what unavoidably separated her from the rest of society; she was black, female, and a slave, in a white male dominating society. The novel “locates black women at the intersection of racial and sexual ideologies and politics (12).” White begins by illustrating the Europeans’ two major stereotypes o...
The story of “Life in the Iron Mills” enters around Hugh Wolfe, a mill hand whose difference from his faceless, machine-like colleagues is established even before Hugh himself makes an appearance. The main narrative begins, not with Hugh, but with his cousin Deborah; the third-person point of view allows the reader to see Deborah in an apparently objective light as she stumbles tiredly home from work in the cotton mills at eleven at night. The description of this woman reveals that she does not drink as her fellow cotton pickers do, and conjectures that “perhaps the weak, flaccid wretch had some stimulant in her pale life to keep her up, some love or hope, it might be, or urgent need” (5). Deborah is described as “flaccid,” a word that connotes both limpness and impotence, suggesting that she is not only worn out, but also powerless to change her situation; meanwhile, her life is “pale” and without the vivid moments we all desire. Yet even this “wretch” has something to sti...
Through vivid yet subtle symbols, the author weaves a complex web with which to showcase the narrator's oppressive upbringing. Two literary
This play covers issues relating to racial prejudice, cultural stereotypes, and gender roles. We are introduced to these issues through the trials and tribulations of Esther Mills, a highly talented African-American seamstress looking for love at the age of thirty five. The set, while very simple and had only a few props (bed, table, staircase, piano, and fabric store) was very dynamic and was easily changed in between scenes, sometimes all they did was change the comforter on the bed. The theatre setup was a multipurpose arrangement or “black box” (Wilson 87). This was the first production I have seen since middle school, at first, I was not following
In the book, The Help, Kathryn Stockett’s writings illustrate that racism affects personal relationships and also divides communities. The Help portrays the hatred directed towards blacks in great detail by telling the story of African American maids. By describing the daily abuse that is inflicted on them, Stockett’s readers begin to understand the effects that racism has on families. To accomplish this, the author uses violent ways and miscommunication skills to show how these maids were treated in this time. This story takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962 during the time of the Ku Klux Klan and John F. Kennedy’s presidency which makes an impression in this book. Despite all of the violent actions and words said, the maids continue
There are numerous works of literature that recount a story- a story from which inspiration flourishes, providing a source of liberating motivation to its audience, or a story that simply aspires to touch the hearts and souls of all of those who read it. One of the most prevalent themes in historical types of these kinds of literature is racism. In America specifically, African Americans endured racism heavily, especially in the South, and did not gain equal rights until the 1960s. In her renowned book The Color Purple, Alice Walker narrates the journey of an African American woman, Celie Johnson (Harris), who experiences racism, sexism, and enduring hardships throughout the course of her life; nonetheless, through the help of friends and family, she is able to overcome her obstacles and grow into a stronger, more self-assured individual. While there are numerous themes transpiring throughout the course of the novel, the symbolism is one of the strongest prospects for instigating the plot. In The Color Purple by Alice Walker, numerous symbols influence and drive the plot of the novel.
In this Alice Walker story, the reader meets a girl named Celie. In this novel, Walker takes the reader on a journey through much of Celie’s life. While taking the reader through this tale, Walker draws attention to a number of social aspects during this time period. Through Cilie’s life, Walker brings to light the abuse and mistreatment of African American women from 1910 through the 1940’s. “Women were also regarded as less important than men – both Black and white Black women double disadvantage.