"Counterparts" and "Like a Winding Sheet"

Both Counterparts and Like a Winding Sheet feature a man with an anger problem as their main character. In the first story, Counterparts, the protagonist Farrington spends the majority of his work day slacking off and thinking about how he'd rather be at a bar with his friends. Farrington is a large, physically imposing man, but his minuscule and "egg-like" boss berates and scolds him ceaselessly. When he finally goes out drinking with his friends, he's beaten twice at arm-wrestling by a much slighter man, and has spent all his money on rounds for everyone else. He is broke, and certainly quite inebriated, even if he sees himself nowhere near as drunk as he'd like. When he gets home, his wife is at the chapel, so he tells one of his sons to heat up his dinner. When he sees that the fire had gone out, he beats the boy for his negligence, even though by the time he gets home, every pub has closed, so it is most likely late at night. But he had felt his rage building throughout the whole day, at one offense after another. I wasn't surprised at Farrington's actions, and I don't think he was either.

In the second story, Like a Winding Sheet, the main character, Johnson, is faced with a series of confrontations that increase his temper. He starts the day intending to get up early and make his wife breakfast, but instead lolls around in bed and ends up being late for work. The forewoman starts a racist tirade about how the workers are lazy and always making up excuses to be late. Johnson sees that his hands are clenched tightly and feels that he has very little control over them. He works a long shift, all the while thinking how much he dislikes it and how inefficient it is. After work, he stops in a diner to get a cup of coffee, and is told by the white waitress that they're out of coffee at the moment. He reads this as a refusal of service because he is black, and his fists clench again. When he arrives at his house, his wife scolds him a few times, and teases him lightly. This is the last straw for Johnson, or rather his fists. His fists strike her once, and then don't stop; all the while his consciousness is aware but unable to end it. His rage, like Farrington's is clearly growing from the start of the story. I knew some kind of violence would occur, but the character's disassociation from it was unexpected.