This story originally put me to sleep, like some others have this semester. Although I do blame part of that to do with the fact I tried reading it at 4 in the morning. It was not a terrible story, just somewhat lengthy and preached about a subject that I particularly did not find all that enthralling. O’Connor was a white female from the south, so naturally, during this time, they thought about racial equality, and the tension between whites and blacks. However, this story seemed very much so geared toward the tension between a mother and son.
The common recurring things I found in the story were the weird hat, Julian secretly did not like, and the house that Julian’s mother used to live in. The connections I drew from each of those, was that the house represented her former glory, and with time it became old and run down. And the hat represented her in her present state, needed awkwardly gaudy things to disguise she is no longer realistically at the same stature she once was. Julian’s constant harshness to his mother was very confusing. The author made it a clear point that Julian owed a great deal to his mother because she was very kind to him, but all Julian had to offer was hatred for her ignorance. This was perhaps symbolic of how the North had a lot to owe to the South, but now that they thought themselves more educate and superior, they treated the South like they were dumb kids. Another major symbol would usually be the transportation, indicating transition, or growing of some sort, but I could not make the connection in this story how the bus was symbolic….any ideas?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I agree with your perspective on the old house and how it was her glory. I never noticed that the hat she was holding onto so much was like her pride and to make her seem like she is a higher class than she really was. I also found the symbolism you noticed about how the North had owed a lot to the South and how the South was looked down upon. The characters mannerisms and actions were most likely similar to people in the real life. I felt the dialect shows true. I also think the bus could be a form of symbolism. It’s supposed to be taking people places and in a way making society come together. I enjoyed this story and found it my favorite this semester so far.
ReplyDelete