everything that rises must converge
In Flannery O'Connors' "Everything That Rises Must Converge", the character of Julian sees his mother as racist and narrow-minded due to her sheltered upbringing and lack of knowledge and education of the black struggle for equality. He feels that due to his education that he has a higher understanding of social structure and inequality that his mother lacks, and he loathes her for this reason. However, despite his higher education, he still depends on his mother for financial support even as a grown man, and has a repressed emotional dependency on her. This is the inner character conflict that Julian faces. In reality, Julian is as facetious and narrow-minded as his mother, he simply refuses to come to terms with this harsh reality, and as a result he plays off his own inadequacies and shallowness on his mother, by criticizing her and having a negative and depressing view of her. He must come to terms with his repressed dependency on his mother and deep-seeded feelings of failure and personal inadequacy. Unfortunately, it takes the event of his mother's stroke to realize that Julian must take care and depend on himself, and realize that he and his mother are almost identical in their social views and failures.
A second instance of Julian's repressed racism is seen when an African-American man enters the bus and Julian attempts to engage him in conversation to spite his mother, however, this action shows that Julian really does not view African Americans as people. Despite his assertions of social awareness, he views blacks as guinea pigs to be used to test his mother's tolerance of his actions. When a second African-American enters the bus, this time a woman with a child, the final instance of Julian's insecurities and dependencies is realized. Upon exiting the bus Julian's mother insists upon giving the African-American woman's child a penny. This may be seen as a gesture of condescension, or that she thinks the black mother and child are poor, but in reality, it seems to simply be a friendly gesture she would do to any child, despite color. The black woman snaps in return, shouting at Julian's mother that her child does not take money from anyone. This shock of rejection from an African-American causes her stroke, and in return, Julians epiphany. After he realizes what has happened, he comes to terms with his failures and dependency, he discovers he truly loves his mother, he shouts, "Darling, sweetheart, wait!"(O'Connor 1091). He then enters a world of "guilt and sorrow"(O'Connor 1091). His pre
Some common words found in the essay are:
African American, African Americans, Rises Converge, instance julian's, emotional dependency, true feelings, enters bus, african-american enters bus, true self, depends mother, dependency mother, african-american enters, black woman, mother child,
Approximate Word count = 881
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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