![]() They see their own view of themselves as being objective, and want to make sure that other people see that same objective view. This divergence in the two women’s perceptions of reality leads to a physical confrontation.Įven as both Julian and his mother seem to believe that their own view of the world is objective, they are also constantly worried about how other people see them. Meanwhile, Julian’s Mother considers giving a penny to Carver to be a kind and generous action towards a cute child, but Carver’s Mother finds it to be intensely condescending. Julian’s attempt to accept and interact with the black passengers on the bus is, in some sense, morally noble, but at the same time its presumptuousness, self-righteousness, and shallow execution increases tension and helps escalate to the fight between his mother and Carver’s Mother. This is notable in the realm of conflicting moral frameworks that differently define generosity or kindness. In fact, over and over again the story shows the conflict between the perceptions that different characters view to be objective, proving those perceptions to be subjective. As a result, the story suggests that claims to objectivity are arrogant and delusional. His sense of his mother and his sense of himself are revealed as being actually highly subjective. ![]() For instance, the narrator also claims that Julian’s remove has allowed him to “cut himself emotionally free of and could see her with complete objectivity.” Yet the story ends with Julian completely not understanding that Julian’s Mother is suffering a breakdown. In other words, the complexity of the world depicted by the story is deeper than the literal words of the story, or the perceptions of the characters. While Julian sees being in the “inner compartment of his mind” as something that makes him superior, it’s also evident that this means that Julian-and the story the narrator is telling-are somewhat insulated from reality. Yet, even as this description seems to show how Julian thinks of himself, it reveals more, as well. For instance, when the narrator says that Julian spends most of his time in the “inner compartment of his mind,” which distances him from the “general idiocy of his fellows” and allows him to judge in a way that’s “safe from any kind of penetration from without,” this seems to express Julian’s own view of himself. When the narrator discusses Julian, then, it seems reasonable that the narrator is expressing Julian’s own sense of himself. The story is told by a “close” third person narrator that only has access to Julian’s internal world, and whose tone of narration mirrors Julian’s own way of thinking and speaking. The story’s fundamental contrast between reality and perception comes in its very narration. This contrast makes clear how biases, by warping a person’s understanding of reality, create fraught social conditions like those in the mid-twentieth century American South. ![]() Throughout “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” the story contrasts the reality of the world with the characters’ perception of that reality.
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