Why I Hate My Mother

Why I Hate My Mother

The short story "Everything That Rises Must Converge" written by Flannery O'Connor follows a day in the life of young man name Julian and his mother, in the late 1950's. 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 couldn't 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 O'Connor). 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 O'Connor). 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 O'Connor). Meaning they were not white people. "But I can be gracious to anybody, I know who I am" (Pg. 629 O'Connor). 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 O'Connor).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 O'Connor). The mother was proud of her family's history and who they were. Julian countered that by asking, "Will you look around you, and see where you are now" (Pg. 629 O'Connor)? Julian couldn't 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 O'Connor). 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 O'Connor). 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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O'Connor). 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 O'Connor).Most importantly he knew it would upset his mother. So he asked the man, "Do you have a lighter" (Pg. 632 O'Connor)? Julian had nothing to smoke he just wanted his mother to see him talking to a Negro, but it didn't work because the man didn't 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 O'Connor). 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