As Julian enters into “a world of guilt and sorrow” Flannery O’Connor persuades readers to address the issue of racial integration using an intergenerational family dynamic in Southern America. In her 1961 short story “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, O’Connor focuses readers’ attention on Julian and his relationship with his mother to expose the complexities of racial perceptions. While many critics attempt to analyze this story solely using O’Connor’s religious beliefs, critic Patricia Dinneen Maida proposes that the story can be explored on a number of levels. In her article “’Convergence’ in ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge’”, Maida critiques Julian’s character while analyzing the variety of factors that influence his identity …show more content…
While it is clear that there is a generation gap due to the changing times, Julian’s main objective seems to be in separating himself from anything representative of his mother’s era. He prides himself on being educated, “free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts” while his mother is stuck in a past that has not prepared her for the present times of integration and racial acceptance (O’Connor 5). Julian’s mother attempts to retain some dignity from the upper class status she once was associated with but this often leaves her with a superiority complex. She often says, “’if you know who you are, you can go anywhere.’ She said this every time he took her to the reducing class. ‘Most of them in it are not out kind of people,’ she said, ‘but I can be gracious to anybody” (O’Connor 2). Maida claims that Julian is a representative of his generation and the response that follows thus expresses the feelings of his contemporary young Americans, “Julian sums up the attitude of his generation: ‘They don’t give a damn for your graciousness…knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven’t the slightest idea where you stand now or who you are”’ (Maida 27). Although Julian is addressing his mother here, he fails to realize how this statement applies to his search for his own identity. While his opinions about his mother’s superior attitude can be seen as progressive, it is his attitude toward her that makes readers question his motives. Julian believes he is superior over his mother because of his acceptance when in truth he is equally or more racist in his objectification of the African-Americans he encounters. Maida argues that Julian has difficulty recognizing the misconceptions of his own character because he is obsessively attempting to distinguish himself from his mother (27). This much is true, Julian’s liberal ideas are a result of negating everything
...on about his life is blamed on his mother. His hatered for her "gives" him a reason to be a crtical, self-loathing person. Having the ability to tell right from wrong does not assist him in anyway. He is always looking for approval and satisfaction from the one person he accused of being in a "fantasy world". The fantasy world she has lived in for so long is now and were he will spend the rest of his life. Julian is left to fend for himself in a cold world where he is no more prepared to handle than he is a job. Finally we are left to guess whether or not Julian can make it without the one person who annoyed him so much, but stood by his side all of his life.
The novel The Garies and their Friends is a realistic examination of the complex psychology of blacks who try to assimilate through miscegenation and crossing the color barrier by “passing as white.” Frank J. Webb critiques why blacks cannot pass as being white through the characters Mr. Winston and Clarence Jr.
In D. W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation the interactions between black and white characters represent Griffith’s view of an appropriate racial construct in America. His ideological construction is white dominance and black subordination. Characters, such as the southern Cameron’s and their house maid, who interact within these boundaries, are portrayed as decent people. Whereas characters who cross the line of racial oppression; such as Austin Stoneman, Gus and Silas Lynch, are portrayed as bad. Both Lynch and Lydia Brown, the mulatto characters, are cast in a very negative light because they confuse the ideological construct the most. The mixing of races puts blacks and whites on a common ground, which, in Griffith’s view, is a big step in the wrong direction. Griffith portrays how the relationship between blacks and whites can be good only if the color line and positions of dominance and subordination are maintained. Through the mulatto characters he illustrates the danger that blurring the color line poses to American society.
To the modern white women who grew up in comfort and did not have to work until she graduated from high school, the life of Anne Moody reads as shocking, and almost too bad to be true. Indeed, white women of the modern age have grown accustomed to a certain standard of living that lies lightyears away from the experience of growing up black in the rural south. Anne Moody mystifies the reader in her gripping and beautifully written memoir, Coming of Age in Mississippi, while paralleling her own life to the evolution of the Civil Rights movement. This is done throughout major turning points in the author’s life, and a detailed explanation of what had to be endured in the name of equality.
Present-day debates over racial issues are often viewed on television or in everyday life. When considering The Souls of Black Folk, the readers in the Twentieth-Century America can draw direct parallels to events, stories, and the stories of those in the past to today. The chapter "Of the Coming Of John" helps us interpret the present inequities in educational opportunities. There is also resentment for affirmative action that has been spoken by the dominant white male that reflects the court decision on affirmative action of modern time. The reader can contemplate the passage of Du Bois' essay to substitute the words "colored" and "Negro" with African-American, Nigger, illegal alien, Mexican, inner-city dwellers, and other meanings that articulate people that are not listed as a majority.
Julian’s mother is a to be an older white lady that goes to the YMCA to lose some weight, but at the same time is all about where her status is at. She would like to think that she is very important person, she wears her hat and gloves to go to the Y to work out and she wants her son to maintain a certain look of being a well-off person otherwise she thinks he is a “thug” for not being proper at all times. She is also a self-absorbed person, in the first page all she can talk about is her and that hat she just bought. Going back and forth on if she should keep it or not, it’s almost as if she needs her son to say that this hat looks good on her, and even after he tells her the hat looks fine she goes on to have everything be about her and “knowing who she is.” Flannery O’ Conner never really gives Julian’s mother a name, however it is very obvious that is thinks that she is above colored people and a racist, “She would not ride the buses by herself at night since they had been integrated.” (PG.1) Being brought up in the time period that she did she completely believed that Africans are better off being slaves. She points out in page 5 that the only reason she will not ride the bus by herself is because an African person was able to sit somewhat close to her and her narrow mindedness thinks that this is unfair in a sense. Julian’s mother thinks so high of hersel...
The short story "Everything That Rises Must Converge" centers on the relationship between Julian, a young man who has recently graduated from college, and his mother. It takes place in a city in the South soon after integration. Much like Emily Grierson in William Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily," Julian’s mother is a product of the "Old South." She takes tremendous pride in her heritage due to the fact that her ancestors were people who were once very highly respected. Her grandfather was a former state governor as well as a plantation and slave owner. Julian sees his mother as a dinosaur who is a product of the past and cannot see and accept the realities of the present. The fact that she clings to her old values embarrasses him, and he sees her more as a child who does not know any better.
An Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man tells the story of a man’s journey living as a biracial person in the time of legal racial segregation in the United States. The novel not only describes the life of the narrator, but also emphasizes his journey into becoming a proficient pianist. The story describes his upbringing, family history, and adulthood experiences. As a child, the narrator was not aware of the concept of race. This, in a sense, led him on a journey of discovering African-American culture. Growing up in a privileged household, he wasn’t aware of the typical African-American’s experience. As a child, he thought he was “white”. For example, he talks about one occasion where his elementary school teacher asked, “’I wish all of the white scholars to stand for a moment (11).’” Since the narrator was not aware of his race, he stood up with his white classmates. This experience led him on the road to discovery of race, racial segregation, and the differences between white and African-American people. This journey brought him to the South and...
The family goes through struggles, such as their son having dyslexia, their daughter joining private school, and George trying to find his biological father. Many of the statements and visuals portrayed are those that negatively illustrate how Mexicans and Cubans act.... ... middle of paper ... ... Social Cognition (2008): 314-332. Browne. "
In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the main character Arnold, also known as Junior, has many health issues, and notably stands out in the crowd. It does not help that he is a poor Indian boy that lives on a reservation, and that he decides to go to an all-white high school. Many of his experiences at school, and on the Reservation, impact his identity. Experience is the most influential factor in shaping a person’s identity because it helps gain confidence, it teaches new things, and it changes one’s outlook on the world.
Firstly, one’s identity is largely influenced by the dynamics of one’s relationship with their father throughout their childhood. These dynamics are often established through the various experiences that one shares with a father while growing up. In The Glass Castle and The Kite Runner, Jeannette and Amir have very different relationships with their fathers as children. However the experiences they share with these men undou...
The main character is completely alienated from the world around him. He is a black man living in a white world, a man who was born in the South but is now living in the North, and his only form of companionship is his dying wife, Laura, whom he is desperate to save. He is unable to work since he has no birth certificate—no official identity. Without a job he is unable to make his mark in the world, and if his wife dies, not only would he lose his lover but also any evidence that he ever existed. As the story progresses he loses his own awareness of his identity—“somehow he had forgotten his own name.” The author emphasizes the main character’s mistreatment in life by white society during a vivid recollection of an event in his childhood when he was chased by a train filled with “white people laughing as he ran screaming,” a hallucination which was triggered by his exploration of the “old scars” on his body. This connection between alienation and oppression highlight Ellison’s central idea.
Unlike hooks and Frankenberg who give detailed views on the idea of whiteness that consistently criticize it as a way of thinking that influences our lives, instead McIntosh gives the readers a perspective of whiteness from a privileged white woman. McIntosh 's admittance and understanding to her class and racial advantage allows her to be able to view the problems surrounding whiteness and by doing so, allows her to make the changes needed to make a difference. Even with the different class viewpoint, McIntosh acknowledges the idea that "whites are taught to think their lives as morally neutral, normative, and average.." (McIntosh 98) and that this way of thinking creates a situation where whites view non white individuals to be abnormal and under average. This prescribed way of thinking produces the idea that if a white individual volunteers or works to help others, this helpfulness is a way of assisting non-whites to be more like whites. This form of education that the people, who have access to education, receive can then be understood as being obviously problematic. The perspective of class is an important viewpoint from McIntosh because as a privileged white woman, she is provided with more access to education and varying resources than many people. Again, the subject of education is brought forward. This access to the different educational institutions that she has had and her acknowledgement to her uneducated ideas on race show how the educational system had failed her. "As a white feminist, I knew that I had not previously known I was 'being racist ' and that I had never set out to 'be racist '" ( Frankenberg 3). Although Frankenberg had begun with the goal of working for the rights of feminism, her lack of knowledge on race, hindered her from understanding more aspects of
Literally converge means "to tend toward or approach an intersecting point." But I believe that word's meaning especially in literature changes, or even contains two different meanings. So in the story "Everything that Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O 'Connor converge affects the title but has different meaning. The title means that the past is nothing and the present is more important. Not only that, but everything will return as God made as the time goes by.
A main theme in this novel is the influence of family relationships in the quest for individual identity. Our family or lack thereof, as children, ultimately influences the way we feel as adults, about ourselves and about others. The effects on us mold our personalities and as a result influence our identities. This story shows us the efforts of struggling black families who transmit patterns and problems that have a negative impact on their family relationships. These patterns continue to go unresolved and are eventually inherited by their children who will also accept this way of life as this vicious circle continues.