Julian In Everything That Rises Must Converge

In “Everything that Rises Must converge”, Julian and his mother have a very complicated relationship. His mother, represents the transition from old south and Julian, represents the transition of the new south. Julian is a young educated man, who has recently graduated from college. The way he views the world makes it difficult for him to deal with his mother because of her opposing views of the world. Racism is the main conflict we see in the story between the two characters. When they are getting on the bus to go to the mothers exercise, She enter[s with a little smile, as if she were going into a drawing room where everyone had been waiting for her” (O’Connor 410). She is smiling because she is happy to see that there are only white people on the bus. During the bus ride, a black women gets on the bus
However he was wrong, and she does not realize anything, and is still living in the old south way. His mother lived all her life in a world of slavery, and now has to go through the transition to more of a modern life with freedom and equal opportunity for everyone. Even though racism is the main conflict between the mother and son, there is a conflict with superficiality as well. Julian’s mother believes the way she looks will make her a better person, while Julian think this superficiality does not matter. There is a clear example with in the text showing this situation.” She stiffened. ‘Why must you look like that when you take me to town?’ She said. ‘Why must you deliberately embarrass me?”(O’Connor, pg.3) Through this conversation we see how his mother is embarrassed about how her son dresses, but we also get to see the way they communicate and how it affects Julian. He begins to avoid his mother authority and support, “Julian did not like to consider all she did for him”. (O’Connor, pg.1) He starts loosing respect for his mother and everything that she has done for him because of their conflicting views, and shows the weakening of a mother-son