Julian and his mother

“Everything That Rises Must Converge” 

Flannery O’Connor -1965

    "He imagined his mother lying desperately ill and his being able to secure only a Negro doctor for her. He toyed with that idea for a few minutes and then dropped it for a momentary vision of himself participating as a sympathizer in a sit-in demonstration. This was possible but he did not linger with it. Instead, he approached the ultimate horror. He brought home a beautiful suspiciously Negroid woman. Prepare yourself, he said. There is nothing you can do about it. This is the woman I've chosen. She’s intelligent, dignified, even good, and she’s suffered and she hasn’t thought it fun. Now persecute us, go ahead and persecute us. Drive her out of here, but remember, you’re driving me too. His eyes were narrowed and through the indignation he had generated, he saw his mother across the aisle, purple-faced, shrunken to the dwarf-like proportions of her moral nature, sitting like a mummy beneath the ridiculous banner of her hat." -page 5

What Julian seemingly fails to understand is the other side of racism.  Lack of negative prejudice means nothing if blacks are still just items to be collected and prove your omnipotence.  Julian is well learned, and I would argue his feelings are much better than his ignorant mothers.  However, Julian fails to grasp the true extinction of racism.  It is not the opposite of conventional racism, but for lack of a better phrase it could be defined as "not giving a shit".  Racism will be dead not when whites repay blacks for their misdeeds, but when race is nothing but an irrelevant afterthought.

Still, Julian is not completely in the wrong.  He not only chastises his mother for her negative attitude, but her patronization of them as well.  Additionally, I must admit I've had similar frustrated feelings with some of my more conservative family members.  Should my uncle make an ignorant comment at dinner I'm not opposed to telling him he's a fucking idiot.  The sense of satisfaction felt in fighting for what you believe to be right is liberating, but it is also a source of error.  I am not above Julian's demeanor towards his mother because I can be the same way when it comes to issues that I logically believe to be completely one-sided.  However, the error of the human race has not been corrected without outward action, be it passive or aggressive.  Regardless of the possible errors present in the correction of racism, racism itself is a larger issue.

That being said, does Julian's mother deserve her death?  Additionally, does Julian deserve it?  Julian's mother is a leftover from another generation, set in her ways and in denial at the turn of the world.  Julian has made the effort to learn and grow, going beyond his mother.  However, he still depends on her, and has seemingly made little effort to move out and on, spending his time resenting his mother for her misconceptions.  Although I have no problem with his mom being punched in the face, death is a high price to pay for being a product of your era.  Still, it can be argued that Julian and his mother are both in need of some reformation.