In reading the story, "Like a Winding Sheet" by Ann Petry, we see that the character of Johnson feels imprisoned. The imprisonment that he feels comes from different areas, his job, his perceptions, and his own helplessness in the face of control that he feels from women. His job is a source of imprisonment because he is at the mercy of the shift change, the pain in his own body and he feels that if …showed first 75 words of 423 total…

…showed last 75 words of 423 total…the mercy of the white girl at the counter because she has the control over whether he gets a cup of coffee or not. If we look beyond the surface of the story, we can see that the conclusion is not necessarily the tragedy but the end result of a continuing tragedy. Johnson's own imprisonment comes not from the job, his perceptions, or the control he feels women have over him but from inside himself.