Flannery O’Connor’s two narrations. “Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “Good Country People. ” are different narratives showing different characters. different secret plans. and different subjects ; nevertheless. both narratives revolve around a female parent and her kid and their relationship. “Everything That Rises Must Converge” concerns Julian and his female parent. and “Good Country People” concerns Hulga and her female parent. As the two narratives unfold. the similarities between Julian and Hulga. two apparently different persons. go evident. The two. who appears unlike at first. turn out to hold features similar to one another. Both Julian and Hulga exhibit an educated and a proud character. They both use other people to formalize their beliefs. and they both face a state of affairs where they learn a lesson that they have to acknowledge for themselves.
At the beginning of each narrative. O’Connor nowadayss each character as learned. conceited. and holier-than-thou. Julian has merely graduated from college. which is a large accomplishment. sing that her female parent did it all by herself. Julian is an aspirant author who. for now. sells typewriters and lives with his female parent. He thinks of himself as really intelligent. In fact. he frequently draws himself “into the interior compartment of his head. . . the lone topographic point where he [ feels ] free of the general amentia of his chaps. ” In the same manner. Hulga is a 32-year old adult female who holds a Ph. D. in Philosophy and presently lives with her female parent. She. like Julian. besides thinks of herself as superior to others. She thinks that if she merely can. “ [ s ] he would be in a university talking to people who know what she [ is ] speaking about. She besides thinks to herself. “ [ A ] true mastermind can acquire an thought across even to an inferior head. ” The two characters think excessively extremely of themselves that they belittle other people. even their female parents who support them until now.
In the class of each narrative. Julian and Hulga both use other people to turn out to themselves and to others their beliefs. Julian uses black people to turn out to his female parent that the society has changed. He tries to do friends with black people non because he likes them and sees them as coequals. but because he wants to annoy his female parent and to demo everyone that he is non shockable like most white people are. Likewise. Hulga tries to score Manley Pointer into retreating his religion and into believing that there is no God. She wishes to learn him “the deeper significance of life. ” She imagines “that she [ takes ] his compunction in manus and alteration [ s ] it into a deeper apprehension of life. ” Hulga wants to change over Manley. Julian and Hulga both wish to alter others into accepting what they believe are true and right.
As each narrative concludes. the two characters face messages whose significances they have to do usage of. Right after the confrontation of Julian’s female parent with the black adult female. Julian’s female parent prostrations out of the blue and dies while Julian wittingly lectures her. Julian says to his female parent. “From now on you’ve got to populate a new universe and face a few worlds for a alteration. Buck up. it won’t kill you. ” Then the female parent falls to the paving. Now. the female parent that Julian despised before is gone. and he is left in a “world of guilt and sorrow. ” Similarly. Hulga loses her wooden leg over a second-rate “country male child. ” In annoyance. Hulga says to Manley. “You’re a all right Christian! You’re merely like them all–say one thing and make another. ” Manley merely says before go forthing. “ [ Y ] ou ain’t so smart. I been believing in nil of all time since I was born! ” Now. Hulga is left legless. helpless. and Godless. Both Julian and Hulga attempt to alter other people when it is them who need to alter.
Julian and Hulga are both erudite and proud. They both use other people for personal proof. and they both face lessons. which they have to calculate out for themselves. O’Connor characterizes Julian and Hulga in a manner that they seem uneven and far from what most people are. but as the characters evolve. they turn out to be ordinary people in all walks of life. They turn out to be where most people are–living in a psychotic belief that their manner is better than the manner of the others.
