Why I Hate My Mother
Why I Hate My Mother
Why I Hate My Mother
The short story “Everything That Rises Must Converge” written by Flannery OConnor follows a day in the life of young man name Julian and his mother, in the late 1950s. The mother has high blood pressure and needs to lose weight, so she decides to join the Y and participate in a reducing class, but she needs Julian to ride the public transportation with her as she goes to the Y. The mother was born in the south during an extremely racist time and still has some of the south racist views towards blacks. Julian is around 24 years old, recently graduated from college and seems to be disappointed in the way his life has turned out and projects that anger towards his mother. Julian show a dislike for his mother social views, he believes that she is a racist. Julian used his mother racist views as an excuse for his dislike, but Julian disliked his mother because she knew who she was and accepted it, and he was not comfortable with who he was and couldnt understand why she was proud, so he choose to be the opposite of her.
The story starts in the house where Julian and his mother was getting ready to go to the Y, for her weight reducing class, that Julian had to accompany. “She would not ride the buses by herself at night since they had been integrated, and because the reducing class was one of her few pleasures, necessary for her health, and free, she said Julian could at least put himself out to take her, considering all she did for him” (Pg. 627 OConnor). He was not thrilled about this.
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“Julian did not like to consider all she did for him, but every Wednesday night he braced himself and took her” (Pg. 627 OConnor). He felt like he did owe her, but he resented when she threw it in his face.
While walking to the bus she started a talking about the people in her class, “Most of them in the class are not our kind of people” (Pg. 629 OConnor). Meaning they were not white people. “But I can be gracious to anybody, I know who I am” (Pg. 629 OConnor). She believes because she is white and she knows that she is superior, it allows her to have the ability to be gracious to people she thought was less than her. Julian responded by saying “Knowing who you are is only good for one generation”(Pg. 629 OConnor).Julian felt his mother was living in the past, his mother felt the past was a part of who they were now. “Your great-grandfather was a former governor of the state, your grandfather was a prosperous land-owner, your grandmother was a God-high” (Pg. 629 OConnor). The mother was proud of her familys history and who they were. Julian countered that by asking, “Will you look around you, and see where you are now” (Pg. 629 OConnor)? Julian couldnt understand how his mother could feel proud when they were living in a non-wealthy neighborhood.
Once the bus came Julian and his mother got on, and his mother quickly started up a conversation with other passengers. Saying “I see we have the bus to ourselves” (Pg. 631 OConnor). Meaning it was only white people on the bus this upset Julian more. The women continue conversing as the bus went on. The bus stopped and a Negro man got on, so Julian went to sit near him to show that he was not a racist, but he really did it just to upset his mother. “Her face turned an angry red” (Pg. 632 OConnor). She was really upset at him, and he knew it. “He felt his tension suddenly lift as if he had openly declared war on her” (Pg. 632
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OConnor). Julian wanted to talk to the man and felt it was safe, because “The Negro was well dressed and carried a brief case” (Pg. 632 OConnor).Most importantly he knew it would upset his mother. So he asked the man, “Do you have a lighter” (Pg. 632 OConnor)? Julian had nothing to smoke he just wanted his mother to see him talking to a Negro, but it didnt work because the man didnt want to talk to him.
Julian, in his mind had declared war on his mother. “He began to imagine various unlikely ways by which he could teach her a lesson” (Pg. 633 OConnor). He wanted to upset her and to bring her pride down; he felt she had no reason to be proud. A Negro woman and her playful young boy entered the bus and kind of broke the tension with his playful