Compare the characters of Julian and his mother in "Everything That Rises Must Converge".
In Flannery O'Connor's tragic tale of Julian and his mother, Julian is
characterized as arrogant, unthinking, selfish, lacking in sympathy,
unappreciative and hatefully unkind. In a world in which his elderly mother
began life in another era, Julian demands that her views match his college
education fostered views. In college, Julian only learned to assert the "right"
view without learning to give thought to the radical nature of social change
for people reared in opposing times and with opposing views. Whereas Julian's
attitude and views are condescending, as when he tries impose his gracious good
will on the gentleman on the bus, his mother's views are genuinely kind and
loving, even though unenlightened.
Julian both accuses his mother of and condemns her for condescension when she tries to offer the little boy on the bus a penny, a genuine gesture of goodwill even if an out-of-date one. Whereas Julian...
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is selfish in the extreme and disloyal, his mother is generous and giving, loving, kind, appreciative, and loyal. Her last words are for her father and her childhood nurse Caroline, whom she has identified as the best person she'd ever known. The character traits of Julian and his mother indicate that while political and enlightenment can be learned as correct behavior, true human compassion, love, acceptance, and kindness are needed to make social enlightenment noble rather than just another milieu.
There are only two primary characters in "Everything that Rises Must Converge," so you'd think we'd learn plenty about each of them. This is an interesting question to answer, as we have literally no physical description of one of them--Julian. So let's start with his mother.
She's twenty pounds overweight, we know, since she's going to "reducing class."
Two wings of gray hair protruded on either side of her florid face, but her eyes, sky-blue, were as innocent and untouched by experience as they must have been when she was ten.
Despite the fact that she worked feverishly to put her son through school and give him the best of everything--often doing without for herself--she has the look and demeanor of a young child Julian must take care of.
She's rather old southern belle type, dressing up even to go to weight reduction class--gloves, hat, etc. Julian despises her for this, among other things.
In contrast, we know nothing about what Julian looks like; all we know is what he's like on the inside--small, petty, mean-spirited, vindictive, and prejudiced, just to name a few. It's interesting to reflect on why O'Connor might have done that. Perhaps because what we look like on the outside matters far less than what's on the inside.
How do Julian and his mother represent differing viewpoints in Everything that Rises must Converge?
The significant theme of this story is the generational gap between Julian and his mother, especially in regards to white attitudes about African-Americans. Julian is appalled by his mother's attitude that African-Americans can "rise, yes, but on their own side of the fence." She is clearly of representative of the older generation who hold their racist attitudes, while thinking they are being fair-minded. Julian, on the other hand, purposely sits by black people "in reparation as it were for his mother's sins." The conflict is best summed up in their most concise argument. He says that "true culture is in the mind" and she says, "it's in the heart."
Julian thinks that he has everything figured out and that he isn't dominated by his mother, but ironically, all his actions and thoughts are in direct connection to her. She guilts him into action; he fanatizes about ways to annoy her; he goads her about their family history. The ultimately irony of the story is when the mother is attacked for giving a penny to a small black child on the bus. Julian can finally get all of his frustration out and he thinks he can teach her a lesson, but it is this attack and his attack on her that kill her, and his last word "mother!" and the final line of story states that the "tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her." He can understand that the world is a changed place, but he is going to be held back from partaking in that in any real way because of the guilt and sorrow he feels at her death.