Julian’s Racist Mother in O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge

Julian shows anger and disproof of his mother throughout the whole story, eve though he may be just as judgmental as his mother, but because he thinks he accepts them he still feels better about himself. His mother talks about how she had gotten him through college, and straightened his teeth to make sacrifices for him; but Julian doesn't see that the same way. He's mother see's him as successful, and in all honesty he is not. He sells typewriters so he is just a common worker nothing high and powerful. He continuously imagines himself in his families old mansion, but still more accepting then his family. He mentions that he has a “first rate education at a third rate college” which shows how he clearly wasn't superior due to his schooling. He wasn't a professional at all.

The conflict in this story is shown by the Julian's point of view on society, who as a young man doesn’t believe in racism and criticizes his mother's fanatic opinion on society, her dis??? behavior with neighborhood, and the passengers on the bus. He is not agree and dominated by his mother at all. His mother truly believed that she is a member of the upper class and quite unwaire of condition of social values and human equality.

Ironically, Lily, who gets no sustenance from the church in Sylvan, finds healing in the Catholic sect of the Black Madonna, precisely because its members, in stark contrast, touch her - they reach out to her, provide for her needs, and love her unconditionally.

When she thinks of her mother, “I see her in the summertime. We spent a lot of time outside. We had 70 acres, an orchard and gardens. She had lovely blonde hair that she was very fond of, and she would wear it down in the sun. I see her

The greatest potential influence and need in a child’s life is a mother, someone who will put their happiness and needs after their child’s. The major theme in Sue Monk Kidd’s, The Secret Life of Bee’s, is the importance of motherhood in a child’s life, displayed through Lily’s constant search for a mother figure. Lily starts off looking to Rosaleen as a guide in her life, she then finds a mother figure in the Black Mary after learning about her story, and in the end, accepts August and the other sisters of Mary as her surrogate mothers. In the Secret Life of Bees, Sue Monk Kidd excellently displays the theme of motherhood and its necessity.

In “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by Flannery O’Connor, is a story of racial domestic violence between Julian’s mother and an African American woman who is trying to keep her son away from her. The story is in a third person point of view which means none of the characters is the narrator, however, it does show Julian’s thoughts during the story. The third person narrator focuses on Julian, his mother, and their relationship which is a “parasitic relationship [that] establishes the prototype for parent and child figures” (Winn 192). Julian, despite being an adult, still lives with his mother and has a childlike attachment to her. His mother has a “deep connection of her identity with the intergenerational ties of family and history,

Linda Pastan made this poem include various forms of figurative language to hide the literal message that it's trying to portray. Figurative language is using figures of speech to make the text be more powerful, persuasive, and meaningful. Figures of speech such as, similes and metaphors, go beyond the literal meanings to give the readers a new way of looking at the text. It can come in multiple ways with different literacy and rhetorical devices such as: alliteration, imageries, onomatopoeias, and etc. With the usage of the literary devices Pastan has used, it introduced the relationship between the mother and the daughter. It shows the memories of how the mother helped her daughter grow from a little girl to a young adult getting ready to go her own way in life.

Because of this, Lily needs someone to guide her as she is growing up. The only person Lily could talk to about her life, especially personal things, was her Black caregiver, Rosaleen. This was Lily’s first motherly figure besides her own mother. After Lily ventured out to Tiburon, SC, she established strong relationships with August, May, and June Boatwright. These women took Lily in and provide many things for her, but August Boatwright has supported Lily the most since they first met. She helps to guide Lily as another motherly figure in her life. As well as supplying for Lily, the Boatwright sisters introduced The Black Madonna to Lily. After days of learning the importance of The Black Madonna to the sisters, Lily initiates that the Madonna is a mother to her and a mother to

The mother/daughter relationship between Mrs. MacTeer and her two daughters, Claudia and Frieda, is loving and strong. They are taught their own self-worth through their mother’s strength and example, although this love isn’t fully appreciated by the girls until they are older. During Claudia’s illness, she is treated with a mixture of concern and anger. Although Claudia is scolded and her mother complains of cleaning her vomit, at the same time her mother is nursing her, giving her medicine, and checking on her throughout the night. Claudia discovers later that her mother’s anger is not directed at her, but at the world, as she must raise her black family in a world ruled by white culture. She protects her children and equips them for survival in a hostile environment.

“My Sweet little blue-eyed girl, “ he said in a half- sung sigh that had nothing to do with [Connie’s] brown eyes but was taken up just the by the vast sunlit reaches of the land behind him and on all sides of him- so much land that Connie had never seen before and did not recognize except to know that she was going to it.

Countless more scenarios cross Julian’s mind, but none of them would deceive his mother more than the last one. “Instead, he approached the ultimate horror. He brought home a beautiful suspiciously Negroid woman” (O’Connor 634). By describing dating a black woman as an “ultimate horror,”, Julian reveals through his thoughts his inner snob, a trait he obviously acquired from being around his mother.

The Displaced Person by Flannery O’Connor is about a family fleeing Poland some time around World War II and how they find solace at a farm. The theme that runs through this story is racism and how it affects people. O’Connor shows this through the plot and the characters in her story.

Everything Julian’s mother “sacrifices” for her son isn’t out of love for him; she puts him before herself only to make him fit the “Godhigh” criteria, and in turn uses him to separate and elevate

My eyes drifted around the room before settling on the tea, now lukewarm in my hands. Maudie’s nonchalant face came to mind, and her firm, strong voice commanding Jean Louise and I back into the kitchen played in my head. The sudden news of Tom’s death had upset her, but she revealed nothing as such. She said to Jean Louise to stop her shaking and instructed me to control myself. Maudie maintained her composure, and assisted in upholding mine. I wondered how she had done it, but nevertheless I was grateful.

Julian is son of a hatter *(Antoni Fortuny: horrible father, insecure since rumours Julian is son of another man his wife cheated on him with) and French piano teacher (Sophie Carax): father treated mother like servant, didn 't consider son true Fortuny since was not traditionally manly (bookworm, etc.)