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| From goodreads.com |
Your bitter language sends shivers up my spine. Please see my earlier post. I want to take a moment to marvel at the intersection with the subject of Charles Baxter's essay, "Against Epiphanies." Is my obsession with you perhaps related to a middle-class "addiction" to "the loss of innocence, and the arrival of knowingness"? My shiver turns to a shudder. Julian's knowing in the end mirrors my own, and I'm not sure I'm better off for having indulged.
Still Yours,
Catherine
While it would be easy to approach “Everything That Rises Must Converge” by saying “this story is wonderful and I loved it,” I think that’s almost a given (though I’m sure someone will disagree). It’s safely and securely rooted into our short story canon, and there are a hundred reasons why that’s the case. O’Connor has, in very little space built us characters we can somehow simultaneously empathize with, hate, love, and laugh with, each existing in a clear setting and whose story is told through a captivating and interesting narrative flow. Blah blah blah, this story is great—we all know that.
ReplyDeleteI guess I’d rather spend the bulk of my time figuring out one of the devices in ETRMC—the characters’ eyes. I pick this out because they come up frequently enough for me to say O’Connor is doing something intentionally with them, but are subtle enough to not be overbearing (which the symbolic representation of darkness and lightness might be). When O’Connor first describes Julian’s mother, she says her eyes were “sky-blue” and “as innocent and untouched by experience as they must have been when she was ten” (909). This youthful description is juxtaposed by her “gray hair” and the fact that she “struggled fiercely to feed and clothe and put [Julian] through school” (909). Immediately, we’re set up for her duplicity—a kind of “fakeness” that proves that either she tries to be older and wiser than she really is (her eyes can’t be decorated with fancy hats or clothing)… or her eyes (and what she sees with them) can’t be trusted (because they violate her true identity, as defined by her hat and the rest of her appearance).
We can compare this to Julian’s eyes, which O’Connor describes as “glazed with the determination [to be] completely numb” (909). One thing we can say here is that he can be seen as the neutral one—at least at the early parts of the story. Of course, we realize later on that his neutrality quickly fades into something “savage” and “evil,” and that really, Julian is the scumbag of the story. We see him leave this indifferent glazed-over state when O’Connor writes, “His eyes widened” (916). However, he’s only excited and awakened by the prospect of conflict between his mother and the black woman—he’s getting a twisted sense of enjoyment from the possibility of a racial conflict. That O'Connor can take something as trivial as a character's eyes and make them significant (without overdoing it)is a testament to why ETRMC (and others) will always deserve to stay in the writing classroom.
I'm not going to even attempt to argue that O'Connor is an inadequate writer. As Alex pointed out, obviously she is not. But I am going to continue to be "that person" who can't be please with anything. It's not that I don't appreciate ETRMC or O'Connor. I do. I think it's fantastic how both disgusted by and sympathetic to these characters she manages to make me. A Good Man is Hard to Find sticks in my mind as maybe one of the top ten stories I've read while at SU.
ReplyDeleteHowever, to be completely honest, I'm bored. Maybe I'm completely jaded or just not in the right mood or a total idiot. I don't know. But, I think this has something to do with what Baxter is talking about. It's not that these tried and true short stories, the ones that get anthologized and assigned in academia all over the world are bad. At the time they were written they we're original, fresh, down right awesome. But over the decades they've become conventional. Back in it's formative years, the short story was a plot-driven beast. Slowly it evolved into a more character centered form, and with these characters came revelations, epiphanies. So what comes next? I guess more contemporary short stories are centered around, what? Form? Language? Maybe this is a discussion we could have in class, because I'm sort of drawing a blank of the answer.
Anyway, as I said before, I desperately want to be surprised, excited, disgusted, whatever by writing. I want something with feeling, not so much with storyline or character development or... well... maybe what that means is I just want poems? Almost everything I read on my own time has been written in the past decade, much of it could maybe be classified as cross-genre. I think Flannery O'Connor is great. I think students of writing and literature absolutely must read her. But I'm ready to move on. It's like that episode of Always Sunny, "The Hunger." I have tasted the flesh of contemporary writing and now everything else is unsatisfying.
Well, it wasn't the first time I've read "Everything that Rises Must Converge," so I'm not jumping for joy over the tension or the Reveal or the irony or the insightful-ness. Julian, a young educated man, batters his racist, elderly mother with sarcastic comments and smart-ass reprimands, but readers see that Julian is the true racist and the seemingly-bad mother has given everything for her son. In the climax, the mother is given redemption as she dies calling out for her black nurse from childhood, and we see her as a sad, sympathetic character. In this moment, Julian realizes how how much she gave up for her son, and he realizes that now he is completely alone and lost. I'm not really a fan of Flannery O'Connor. I think she was very wise, and has valuable advice about writing, but I tend not to like reading her nonfiction because her voice is so snarky, it really turns me off. She seemed to see the world in meanness: her stories are usually about very negative, unlikeable characters, and the way she describes people in her nonfiction is often pretty mean. I can love a sad story, but I tend not to like stories as sad as hers, or featuring characters as detestable as hers. Redemption in death seems to be a big theme for O'Connor--both the elderly mother in ETRMC and the grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" receive redemption in the moments before their death. Perhaps this lines up with the Christian idea that an individual is able to receive salvation if, after even a wicked life, they repent on their deathbed. "A Good Man" is the only story of O'Connor's in 3x33 that I hadn't read previously, and I'll say I enjoyed it much more that ETRMC however I wouldn't hold it up as a shining example of fiction. Objectively, I think "A Good Man" is dealing with more interesting themes and plot than ETRMC, but that ETRMC is technically superior. For example, I don't think I'd have anything to criticize if ETRMC came up for workshop, but I would have things to say about "Good Man." This could also be a result of having been taught ETRMC, and just having read "Good Man." I'd also say they're both a heck of a lot better than "Good Country People" which I've always hated. O'Connor has a matter-of-fact-ness about her writing, a true subscriber to Queen Gertrude's "More matter with less art" philosophy. I tend to like more flowery writing (not excessively, but I like my sentences to be interesting and novel), so this aspect, coupled with the fact that she rarely ever writes about likeable characters (I actually liked Grandma in "Good Man" but some other people don't), plus the super sad (I'd say hopeless) endings make it pretty impossible for me to really like her stories.
ReplyDeleteJulian's mother reminded me a lot of my grandmothers. Like, if you took the two of them and found some way to hybridize them, it would be Julian's mother. It was a little sad for me to recognize this. The first time I read "Everything that Rises Must Converge" I was still struck by the tension that Emma mentioned and the characters O'Connor creates, but I couldn't bring myself to sympathize with the characters at the end. In fact, the first time I read this story, I think I saw the ending as melodramatic. I was also in high school and incapable of unpacking the complexities in this story to understand the ending.
ReplyDeleteI bring up her character and in relation to my grandmother because as I was reading I think I paid less attention to the idea of racism reading it again, because I focused on the colorless part of the tension between Julian and his mother. My one grandmother is taking a very steep plunge into dementia that infuriates my father beyond reason but he still tries his best to do right by her. I see that same kind of frustration in Julian, in his desire to make her happy and say what's on his mind (the interactions they have about the hat for example). But Julian also wants to separate himself from her, especially her racist remarks.
It doesn't matter who the person is or the circumstances of their growing up, that need to separate ourselves from them is universal. I am the biggest 'Daddy's Little Girl' who would prefer to say in and watch TV with my parents then go out dancing or whatever people do instead, but I still know the desire to be apart from my parents. Even kid has that moment of embarrassment at the hands of their parents. What i think makes O'Connor's story so good, is that this everyday feeling to the extreme. Maybe it still seems a little dramatic, that he causes her to collapse. But stories are all about extremes right?
Last semester, I had taken Aesthetics and Interpretation and Forms of Writing: Short Story. In both of those classes, we talked extensively about the canon, what made the canon, and why a piece of literature was part of the canon. Sometimes, I find myself wondering why the stories we read in class (that is, any class thus far) are part of the canon, and how they’ve become the canon. Part of me wonders if Everything That Rises Must Converge would still be part of the canon if it were considered today. I wonder what a workshop would think of this story if Flannery O’Connor were a modern student, because there were some parts in this story that I didn’t think a student could get away with in a workshop. (Yes, I know, the style was different then. More on that later.) For example, the noted change in eye color could be considered not too realistic and too dramatic. The part where Julian retreats into a bubble in his mind could be considered amateurish. I start to think that maybe some stories have stayed in the canon merely because they’ve become canonical. That isn’t to say that ETRMC is a bad story, not at all. I appreciate what O’Connor did in this story—how we are able to know the characters so quickly, like Alex said, and how these characters aren’t the passive “it happened to me” type that Baxter talked about. There are just some parts of the writing that I question.
ReplyDeleteMaybe this connects with what Kim had to say. I don’t think I’m bored, but I think I’m getting confused between the standards of literary measurement. There are certain things I find in some stories, a turn of a phrase, a description, a method, that don’t seem to fit in with what I’ve been taught in my Intro class. Of course, I have to acknowledge, as Kim did, that these stories were fresh and new in their formative years, but also that taste and style have changed over time. It’s a bit frustrating, I think, and a bit inevitable, when I find myself trying to write to the current standards of writing and also learning from writing that might not fit exactly into these current standards. It’s a struggle between learning from history and making it new, I think.
This was probably way off-topic, but it was sparked by a few things I had noticed while reading ETRMC and I thought this could be an opportunity to air out these thoughts. This whole thought process makes me question what is good quality writing and what isn’t for this day and age, but I suppose I’ll have to keep puzzling that out for myself.
People who are fond of making generalizations—those who wish to fit the short story into a neat, little box—might tell us that a piece of fiction must have one or more characters with whom the reader can relate because the person on the page is likable or has some qualities that make them sympathetic or at least recognizably, authentically human. That statement came out sounding a little broader and more reasonable than I meant it to, and I might be inclined to agree with it, but then a story like “Everything That Rises Must Converge” comes along. I don’t deny that the characters in this story are genuine and relatable, and I’m inclined to agree with Alex that these are people we can “simultaneously empathize with, hate, love, and laugh with.” (Thanks again, Alex.) It’s Julian who troubles me: I understand why I hate him, but not why I sympathize with him. I hate Julian because I am Julian. I, too, will retreat into my own head and imagine clever scenarios in which I can manipulate others into feeling uncomfortable and/or coming around to my way of thinking, as with Julian’s fantasy of bringing home “a beautiful suspiciously Negroid woman” (915). I see reprehensible, laughable qualities in Julian that I also possess, which only serves to amplify my hatred for him.
ReplyDeleteBut just because we’re somewhat alike, that doesn’t mean I want to sympathize with him, not when his most relatable traits are things I don’t like about myself. Even if I weren’t taking such a personal approach to this character, nevertheless there are some pretty intense lines about Julian’s feelings that should turn any reader against him. My favorite is this: “There was in him an evil urge to break her spirit” (911). Can I say “holy shit” here, or would that be inappropriate? Seriously, though, this line is one of many indicators that Julian is just mean inside and out. So why isn’t he simply a villain? Please understand that I’m not trying to argue that he’s an unsympathetic character, because I do sympathize with him. What I’m saying is, I don’t know where that sympathy is coming from, and if I figure it out maybe it’ll make me a better writer. Do we sympathize because we get the story almost from his point of view, told by a narrator that is very often peering inside his head? Do we sympathize because he’s so down on his luck, selling typewriters a year after college and saddled with a racist mother who won’t stop talking about her ugly hat? Do we sympathize simply because he’s a character in a well-written story that we’re invested in as readers? Is there such as unsympathetic characters, and if so do they only exist in bad fiction? I don’t know the answers, but I’d like to discuss.
I think that one of the most important things this story does is in its characterization. Each character serves one primary function and comes off as a caricature or stereotype at first. But the characters are then complicated – none of them is entirely in the right, and none of them is entirely to blame, either. There is pity to be felt for Julian’s mother, and there is a creeping nastiness to Julian. The woman who shares Julian’s mother’s hat might be presented as a victim, or as an exact mirror to Julian’s mother, but she falls between. While we don’t learn too much about any of the characters, we do come to think we understand them based on their prejudices, only to have that flipped on its head.
ReplyDeleteA device pretty strongly utilized in this story was repetition. The most telling example is of course in the description of Julian’s mother’s hat, when the reader notices the other woman on the bus wearing it but Julian doesn’t catch on right away. There are other instances, particularly in Julian’s mother’s dialogue and mannerisms and habits. One thing this could do is emphasize why this story is being told – why tonight is not just another day in the life of Julian and his mother. What happens tonight that doesn’t fit their usual pattern?
That brings me to my next point: the end of the story. I have mixed feelings. I had assumed something of the sort was going to happen, and yet the action itself was so rushed and extreme, and ended so abruptly, that it was still startling. Since I wasn’t surprised by her rising blood pressure converging in order to kill her (what a shock), I feel like the ending should have at least been played out more. it doesn’t satisfy me as it stands; it just happens and I’m left unsure of how to feel about it.
This is my second time reading Everything that Rises Must Converge for a class. The first time I read it, I had trouble getting to the deeper meaning of the story because all I could think was, “UGH. I would rip my hair out if I were stuck on a bus with these characters.” They all got under my skin and made me cringe (which, looking back, is the point, I think). Julian is pretty awful to his mother, belittling her sacrifices to give him a better life and trying to “teach her a lesson that would last her a while.” His mom doesn’t know when to shut up, and the first time I read this, I had more than one face/palm moment during her dialogue, especially when she tries to give the little boy from the bus a penny.
ReplyDeleteBut when I read it today for this class, I was able to sort through all that and appreciate the characters that Flannery O’Connor has crafted. Though Julian tries to show his mom her racism, he is the most racist person in the story. He doesn’t want to be friends with black people because he likes them; he wants to use them to shock his mother. It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where George tries to get his boss to see him with a black friend (even though he has none) to show that he isn’t racist. I felt more sympathetic towards Julian’s mother this time, but it was that sympathy that an adult gives a child when they do something wrong, “Aw, it’s okay, they don’t know any better.” She’s so stuck in the mindset she grew up in, the one her parents instilled in her, that you almost can’t blame her for thinking the way she does. This is similar to what Julian says in the beginning (which kind of creeps me out that I’m thinking like him), “Her eyes, sky-blue, were as innocent and untouched by experience as they must have been when she was ten.”
Something else I noticed during this reading that I didn’t pick up on last time is the amount of times the word ‘rise’ is used in this story. “They should rise, yes, but on their own side of the fence.” “He would be entirely justified but her blood pressure would rise to 300.” “Rising above them on either side were black apartment buildings.” All these issues come to the surface at once in the story, and it’s too much for Julian and his mom to handle.
I read two other pieces by Flannery O’Connor and loved every one of them including ETRMC. She writes these unique characters that are both awful and yet at the same time you can’t help but feel sorry for them. Well such was the case of Julian’s mother though I hated her a lot more than I liked her. I could understand that she was raised racist but she is so close-minded that that it angered me to hear her speak. That is one of the reasons why I loved Julian so much is that he is able to open up his mind which makes him far superior in a way to his mother. I so desperately wanted his mother to finally learn her lesson because I felt very disgusted and frustrated with her as character. I felt connected to the story that I was able to feel something towards the characters.
ReplyDeleteI’ve always liked Flannery O’Connor because she writes these quirky characters and sort of punishes them as a way to bring justice to the story. Her writing style is very realistic and believable that I in a way become part of the story. In the story “Everything That Rises Must Converge” she writes the idea of racism so well that I often wondered if she encountered some of these people like Julian’s mother before. It is hard for me to describe really what and how Flannery O’Connor writes so well in that every little detail is crafted to bring these characters to life which I think is the most important of any storytelling.
This story reminded me a lot of The Help, which I was able to see over Christmas Break. In that movie it dealt with racism and how whites treated the blacks and vice versa. From this story it felt like I was just back in South watching more people be close-minded and prejudice as another race. Yet I still was able to connect with the main character despite never being in the south as everyone including myself have been a little judgmental on certain people whether it be the same race, appearance, or even personality. I think what this story really shows the reader prejudice at its best and then contrasts with a person who although is mostly not judgmental, yet he is still somewhat is. He is judgmental in regards to his mother and other people who react to the black people on the bus. What I’m very curious about and wondering is why Julian just keeps going with his mother to the Y when he certainly doesn’t like her. I think Flannery did mention something like he kept going to please his mother or something like that but the way she described him made it seemed like he would be the one to not even listen to his mother and ignore her offer.
I have mix feelings about he ending because it felt very sudden and didn’t necessary fit with the rest of the story. It is probably because I wanted to see Julian’s mother learn her lesson and change from it rather than dying on the street, if she was dying. I did feel a little cheated but then again I also felt a little happy that she was getting what she deserved. It also showed a more loving side to Julian which sort changes my question on why he always goes with his mother. I still think that he should have ignored her and completely separate from her, but I don’t think that he would now that I think about it. He is still a Mamma’s boy I think. Overall I really enjoyed this piece and like Flannery O’Connor even more as a writer.
Due to its my imitators ETRMC can come off as slightly cliché, the realization of who we think is the bigot is actually tolerant and vice versa. O’Connor’s lesson in the story still resonates today, politically and socially. I am a political liberal and it is true that some times the biggest bigots are the ones claiming they are the most open minded.
ReplyDeleteWhen I’m around people who believe they are more culturally evolved they can say some of the most horrible, prejudiced things because they think their political opinions give them a free pass to be as awful as possible. Those who proclaim that they’re ‘not racist constantly probably are. The most horrifically racist things I’ve heard are usually started with the phrase “I don’t want to be racist but…”. Those who proudly voted for President Obama, like myself, feel like they can throw around the word “Nigga” non-stop because, it doesn’t have the “r” at the end, and it’s in rap songs, and we’re in a post-racial America now! Of course none of that excuses a white kid saying the most offensive slur without any knowledge of what the power of that word can have. The same goes for using “gay” and “fag”. People who openly in favor of gay rights feel like they can call someone a fag because, hey, they support gay marriage and such. It is much easier to preach something than practice it.
The goal should never be to try to live in a “post racial” country. Recognizing a culture as different is not racist. Wanting to eliminate racial history to homogenize our shared culture is racist. People have shared histories in a community and the objective should be to recognize them as mutually legitimate. I am always cynical of someone who says they are open minded and not prejudiced and they “just want to tell the truth.” People can hide behind political veils and act like a turn of the 20th century southern sheriff. Like ETRMC preaches, how someone treats people is what matters not the positions they claim to support.
There is no strict literary or academic rule forcing us to decide whether we like or dislike the characters presented to us in any type of story. We just have to believe them.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s pretty safe to say that we have all met someone like Julian—arrogant, disrespectful, judgmental, believing that he is right and superior in every circumstance. In his mind, he has nothing to learn, but everything to teach.
Julian’s mother is also believable. She is trapped in the past, a world that no longer exists in the way she wishes it could. In a way, we cannot condemn her for wanting to stay in a world where she was a princess, living comfortably, with her family and her known and accepted values. We can, however, condemn her for how her expired delusions affect those around her in the reality of today.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” these two characters collide and it seems as if the readers are being asked to choose which one is worse. Who is more in the wrong? Who is more unlikeable? Given how the story ends, is Julian’s mother the winner of our affections because she can now be seen as the physical victim? Can Julian possibly be presented in a better light, since what happened with his mother would surely teach him a grand lesson regarding his own insignificance and ignorance?
I read this story in high school and it is one that has always stuck with me. I think about these characters from time to time. They will just creep back into the forefront of my mind. Whether I like them or not, they were real enough to stay with me, and that’s all that I can ask of Flannery O’Connor.
I'm more of the creative type of blogger, so here it goes.
ReplyDeleteWas is sadness or anger that Rich felt toward his father? He wasn't quite sure. Was he angry because he never got to know his dad well on account of him always being away from the family, on business? Was he sad that he never built that classic father-son relationship? Rich didn't have the answer and he didn't care, but that was the day he decided he no longer cared to see his father.
Setting out on his own, Rich would face many troubles. Money, for instance, was a major problem. Rich had been saving up for a while and had compiled all 23 dollars and 46 cents. That could last him at least a few weeks, right? Didn't matter, he could steel things from stores if he wanted to. Perhaps that would simply be too risky. Maybe street preform, that would be easy enough. Well Rich doesn't know how to play any instruments and he doesn't know many songs songs past Allstar by Smashmouth. That's the only one he can remember.
When night comes it gets cold, Rich ponders his decision to leave home. He's not alone, after all, Bun-Bunn, his stuffed rabbit is there, and so is his goose-down blanket, he's had that as long as he can remember. Rich feels scared as his stomach rumbles asking him for some kind of sustenance. This is when Rich leaves the forest, walks across his yard and knocks on his own front door. His mother comes quickly and lifts the small boy up into her arms, tears streaming down her face. Rich looks around. Mom is here, but dad's not. He never is.
I was excited when I saw we would be reading Flannery O’Connor this week. I had red Flannery O’Connor lest semester in the intro class with Catherine. I had really enjoyed her stories then, particularly “A good man is high to find.” That story set the standard for what this one should be like. “Everything that rises must converge,” I feel did live up to the standards that I had expected it to. That was good.
ReplyDeleteI noticed that in a lot of Flannery’ O’Conner’s work there is a lot of references to racial issues. This did sort of remind me of James Baldwin in a way. This story was I guess similar to “Going to meet the man.” Obviously it wasn’t as extreme as that, but while reading “Everything that rises must converge,” I did find myself getting annoyed at all the racism.
It wasn’t completely annoying though, and that was probably due to the humor O’Connor uses in her writing. The scene where Julian is considering being with a black person just to annoy his mother. Of all the times we got into Julian’s head in this story, I thought that was one of the funny ones, despite the fact that it was pretty racist.
I liked how we were able to see deeply into Julian’s head. I thought it was interesting, because it gives us an interesting perspective that we can’t get in real life. That is one of the good things about writing. The fact that you can do that. These glimpses into his head also felt real to me at the same time. I always imagine things in my head, and I assume a lot of other people do too. That was a good way for Flannery’ O’Connor to bring her reader down to earth at the same time as offering a point of view that is a little unique.
O’Connor’s “Everything That Rises Must Converge” was spectacular. Where I first thought it’d be something horribly racial like last week, I was pleasantly surprised when I got to the end of the story and the lesson that it teaches. I enjoyed Julian’s frustration; it was a beautiful and unique outlet for letting readers in and allowing them to connect. I could relate in a way that didn’t make me a racist, because I share the same aggravation with my mother as Julian does for his.
ReplyDeleteThe language and writing within the piece was absolutely beautiful. I like how, even though the story was about Julian, we’re given equal parts about his mother and she has a very distinct personality.
This piece relates to today tremendously, we’d only have to take out the racist aspect and inject a homophobic one. My father is very much so worried about ‘the gays’, to the point where he doesn’t think when someone gets married to someone of the same sex he doesn’t want it to be called marriage, but a union. I have had plenty of thoughts about how I want him to learn to love people who are different than him, many thoughts have been in ways in which Julian thought for his mom.
“True culture is in the mind and not reflected by how one acts or looks” and “Don’t wish for what you can’t handle” are two themes that I saw within the piece. The first one is a quote that Julian’s mother tries to teach Julian in regard to his necktie. The second quote is one that is from Julian to his mother. He wants to teach her a lesson either by bringing a girl home or having his mother be on her deathbed or forcing her to like a black girl he brings home. In the end his mother tries to give a black child a penny and the child’s mother freaks out, hits Julian’s mom, and walks away as Julian’s mother is on the ground dying (or at least that’s what I assume).
Once again we are taken into the lives of white characters, seeing their prejudice against the 'Negro race' from their own eyes. (i personally dislike the term 'negro') In this case we are taken into the life of a mother and her college graduate son, Julian. She lives in the past and struggles to cling to her old identity and the son was who believes he has gained knowledge and entered the future.
ReplyDeleteHe wants her to catch with the times and accept that things are now different but he has really escaped the fantasy his mother has created? Maybe he has made a little fantasy of his own – one in which he has no need of his mentors and he is ready to become the mentor.
The mother says ‘she has great respect for her colored friends’ but why doesn’t she respect their whole community and Julian thinks he respects their community but does he really? Is it just a new idea he is holding over her head, something he knows she can’t achieve? Is he gloating?
He wants her to learn a lesson – especially when the black woman arrives on the bus wearing the same hat as his mother and when she tries to give a penny to the black woman’s young son.
In the end I think Julian learns the lesson when his mother suffers the attack. And now, he would likely live with the guilt of the rest of his life, wondering what he did wrong.
It took me a little while to get into this story but once I got to the scene on the bus, I was pulled in and couldn’t put it down. Julian’s relationship with his mother reminded me of Amanda and Tom Wingfield in The Glass Menagerie, which I have read more about half a dozen times. The constant frustration between the two of them is tangible and they both spend a lot of time in their own little worlds. Julian in his fictional world hypothetical scenarios and his mother caught in an earlier era which he can’t seem to let go of.
ReplyDeleteIt was very interesting to see how race played into their relationship, especially for Julian, because of how his desire to interact with black people was out of spite towards his mother and I found it interesting to think about how he doesn’t realize his own racism in the fact that he merely wants to use black people as a tool to get back at his mother.
As a lot of others have already said, I love the way Flannery O’Connor has created the characters of this story. Despite the detachment of Julian and his mother from reality, everything outside their own personal bubbles was pretty grounded. I especially liked the black mother who was very violent and aggressive towards her child. And I’ll admit it was gratifying to see her knock down Julian’s mom and push her out of her comfort zone, even if only for just a moment.
I’m not sure how I felt about the very end. Although I wanted to see the mother finally experience some sort of recognition of her racism and old fashioned values, the way that Julian simply spelled everything out was a little too storybookish for me. And that sentiment doesn’t even last that long when she falls to the ground. He suddenly disregards everything he’s just said for the sake of helping her, which I supposed solves the problem of the cheesy ending but it still wasn’t satisfying to me as the reader.