In this essay I will be dealing with the short story “Everything That Rises Must Converge” written by Flannery O’Connor. I will be analyzing O’Connor’s description of one of the main characters in the story – Julian’s mother. The story is set in America in the time of racial integration. That’s why I will also be comparing her to a black woman who also appears in the story. Julian's mother is over fifty, a widow, and lives alone with her son. She is overweight and has high blood pressure, because of that she goes to a reducing class. She has a dumpy figure, gray hair, and when describing her eyes O’Connor writes: “but her eyes, sky-blue, were as innocent and untouched by experience as they must have been when she was ten.” (O’Connor 1). She is described as being childlike once more when she is sitting in the bus and “Her feet in little pumps dangled like a child’s and did not quite reach the floor.” (O’Connor 6). She lives in a part of town which was fashionable some forty years ago. She has a very high opinion of herself, which was probably caused by her …show more content…
Julian’s mother is short while the black woman is large. Their personalities are also different. The black woman appears as intimidating, unfriendly, and angry, “The downward tilt of her large lower lip was like a warning sign: DON’T TAMPER WITH ME.” (O’Connor 7), while Julian’s mother comes off as friendly and outgoing, which is seen when she tries to initiate conversation with other people on the bus, as well as in her interaction with the black woman’s son. She is smiling at him, and playing peek-a-boo. Despite these differences there is one thing that is exactly the same – both of them are wearing the same ugly, purple-green hat. The expensive hat was a symbol of the upper class to Julian’s mother. So she found it funny when she saw the same hat on the black woman “as if the woman were a monkey that had stolen her hat.” (O’Connor