Like a Winding Sheet, written by Ann Petry in 1945, is a story that begins with a black man's tough day at work, but takes a twisted turn. Johnson comes home after a hard day planning to kick his feet up and enjoy a relaxing evening at home with his wife, Mae. The ordinary idiosyncrasies Mae possesses begin to send Johnson over the edge and suddenly, something in him snaps. Johnson brutally beats his wife, quite possibly killing her. When this story takes such an unexpected turn the reader must stop to think, "How was this outcome foreshadowed in the story?" and "Was this outcome inevitable?".
Upon first reading Like a Winding Sheet one may not catch all the hints as to what will happen to Mae in the end. In taking a closer look the reader finds that Petry foreshadows this tragic event all along. In the beginning of the story Johnson is waking up to go to work and he becomes twisted in the white sheets covering the bed. Mae laughs at this and says, "Looks like a winding sheet, a shroud- (Petry 109). This foreshadows a fatality with the allusion to a shroud, which is a cloth wrapped around a corpse. After Mae and Johnson get ready for work she happens to glance at the calendar and notices it is Friday the thirteenth. Being superstitious, Mae says she should not even go to work in fear of something bad happening to her, but Johnson insists she go (110). This shows that Mae had a bad feeling about this day all along, but she never thought her loving husband would be the one to validate her superstitions. The next time Petry uses foreshadowing is when Johnson has a bad encounter with his boss and becomes very angry. His boss scolds him for being late then makes a racial comment towards him and .
Johnson becomes furious. "He felt a curious tingling in his fingers and he looked down at his hands. They were clenched tight, hard, ready to smash some of those small purple veins in her face" (111).
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Starting as early as children books, like Treasure Island and the Secret Garden, books convey many messages that are commonplace in modern society. "Like a Winding Sheet", by Ann Petry, is an example of how gender differences and the roles they play in our lives can affect our interactions with one another, as well as our "appropriate" reactions to different situations. ...
At this point in my life, I wasn't feeling particularly adventurous, and the journey to the crown seemed like one that would never end. ... Kids scrambled to pick seats like lions pouncing on their prey. ... I was particularly attracted to ripples that the ferry left in the water, like a child jumping in a puddle. ... There stood the great giant, constructed of sheets of glistening metal. ... I saw a tiny, tight spiral staircase winding its way to the crown. ...
I remember the day like it was yesterday. ... There was no air conditioning, no windows, no sheets, and bars on the doors. ... They finally came in and gave everyone a sheet that was folded in half and sewn up the sides as our sleeping bag. ... It is a tall mountain with winding paths and holy sanctuaries. ... The other people in my group liked me for me. ...
Like a jewel,Heart of Darkness? ... Yet, as lately as Roman times, London's own river led, like the Congo, into a barbarous hinterland where the Romans went to make their profits. ... This view of evil was part of Marlow's conception; a utilitarian object like copper or iron would have had its own reason for being. ... Perhaps consciously aware of this, like the evil he had become, Kurtz gained his power, indeed his identity and being, from the ivory he coveted. ... His covering had fallen off, and his body emerged from it pitiful and appalling as from a winding-sheet. ...
Aluminium foil is a great example because it used very wildly among people for wrapping food and is also beginning to replace copper wire in electrical windings. ... It is also used in construction, aluminium is used in sheet products for roofing and wall cladding, in extrusions for windows and doors, and in castings for builders' hardware. ... This compounds structure looks like this Al3+ HO- HO- HO-. ... It is used for a lot of things like ballistic armor, gas laser tubes, and laboratory instruments. ... It's also used in manufacturing petrochemicals like ethylbenzene and alkylbenz...
'A made a finer end, and went away, an it had been any christom child; 'a parted ev'n just between twelve and one, ev'n at the turning o' th' tide: for after I saw him fumble with the sheets and play with flowers, and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way; for his nose was as sharp as a pen, and 'a babbled of green fields. ... Shakespeare's plays move from a hope in political salvation to a desire for spiritual salvation, just like the Bible does. ... It must have a stop in the last judgment, and in the winding up of the univers...
More recently, most of these writings dealt with one basic question, was it the actual winding sheet of the crucified Christ, bearing an imprint of His body? ... It s like a puzzle with lost pieces or a mystery with missing clues. ... Examinations have been conducted along numbers of different lines, like history, anatomy, chemistry, medicine, photography and art history to prove its authenticity. ... The cloth is believed to be a winding sheet, which means the corpse would have been laid on one half, and his front covered over with the other. ...
