An Analysis The Short Story

        1.   Plot (Summary)

                                                                 Like a Winding Sheet 
 

“Like a Winding Sheet”, as winding in the sheet, like that Johnson called himself as a man who being kept family’ belief in the struggle of his life gather with his wife name Mae. Johnson was born and bring up by his family as a Nigger. So that, if he get insult from another races that seem racist, in his soul he always want to give hit or fist to person who have done it on himself. Because that was a humiliation for himself even also for his family cause it concerns with the culture and society of his race or nation.

This account at beginning in the afternoon a wife, Mae, wants to wake up with her husband together. She attempts to wake up him and at the same time she laughs when sees the twisted sheet that have used by her husband on the bed. She said, “Looks like a winding sheet.” She also said, “You look like a huckleberry in a winding sheet.” Although he protests that is no way to talk early in the day, he smiles in spite of himself. As Johnson dresses for work, he nurses his aching legs that never seem to get enough rest from one shift to the next. When is noting that the date is Friday the thirteenth, Mae considers staying home, but her husband answer back to her to go to work because it is payday, a good luck day everywhere. He had spent fifteen minutes to convince her should to go to work at same time. Thus, this case makes him come late again to work.

If this were his own plant, Johnson thinks, he would make many changes, eliminating jobs that are hard on the legs and figuring out ways people can work sitting down. As he pushes his cart up and down the assembly line, he comes close to the foreman. He finds it odd to have a white woman for a boss in a plant, and can never remember to refer to her as the forelady, even in his mind. He tries to avoid her slit-eyed stare, but just as he passes her, she shouts at him over the roar of the machines.

After a tense confrontation with the bigoted Mrs. Scott, during which she humiliates him for again being late and calls him “a nigger,” Johnson feels his fists clench and the veins in his forehead swell. He restrains himself from smashing her face, but afterward wishes that he had acted, because the queer, knotted tension stays in his hands for the entire shift. Still, he cannot bring himself to hit a woman. As the hours drag on and fatigue overcomes him, he notices the women workers starting to snap and snarl at one another.

Finally the workday ends, and, with his paycheck in his pocket, Johnson stops at a diner for a cup of coffee to soothe his aching body and tense nerves. He does not pay attention to the white girl serving his coffee until she tosses her hair and says to him, “No more coffee for a while.” Again he feels his hands begin to clench into tight, hard fists. He wants to hit her for refusing him a cup of coffee, assuming she has done so because he is black, but he does not. In his hurried and angry exit, he fails to see that the coffee kettle is empty, and she is making a fresh pot. His anger continues to build, running through his body like poison. Everyone, it seems, degrades and belittles him.

This realization fills his mind when he returns home to Mae, who greets him with a cheerful greeting and a toss of her hair. He cringes at her gesture and ignores her attempts at humor. Affectionately trying to coax him to eat, she says, “You’re nothing but an old hungry nigger trying to act tough and—” Before she can finish, Johnson feels his fists clench, rise, and smash into her face, again and again and again, as if he were entangled in a winding sheet.

2.      Setting

Time                : On Friday, 13^th.

Place               : Harlem, New York, United Stated.

   Atmosphere     : in the afternoon when will begin prepare to work at the couple of sweetheart house.

3.      Characterization

Characters	Characteristic	Reason and Proof
Johnson	Easy to be angry	When he always get insult about race from others.
	Consistent	When he attempts to convince his wife that payday is a good luck day everywhere.
	Complainant	When he imagine the people who work just sit on the chair and it does not make legs ache.
Mae (Johnson’s Wife)	Like to Joke	When wake up her husband and when after work went to go home.
Mrs. Scott (Forelady)	Racist	When she reprimand Johnson late at work.
	Coward	When she is afraid to the Johnson's utterances as will hit or fist her.
Coffee Lady	Racist	No more attention to the Johnson when he ordered a cup of coffee.

4.      Moral value/ Moral teaching

No matter how mad you get, you can’t keep it bottled up inside of you for so long, eventually you won’t be able to breath.

Don't forget leave your comment below yeah!^^ =Helda Arfian= CMIIW