Everything That Rises Must Converge

Julian’s mother is a lady of the Old South. She is an elderly Southern woman who derives a significant amount of pride from her heritage, class, and manners while failing to see that these factors no longer hold the same importance in the modern world. She continues to believe that culture is “in the heart […] in how you do things and […] because of who you are” (187). Coming from a once-aristocratic family, Julian’s mother still behaves as a high-class woman, maintaining a high-and-mighty attitude that makes her insufferable to her son, who sees her as a silly woman who lives disconnected from reality. She attends her exercise class at the YMCA with her hat and gloves on, insists that ladies should behave in specific ways, and prides herself on her ability to “be gracious to anybody” (185). However, she does not acknowledge the truth of her current situation. She and her son live in a shabby neighborhood, she attends her exercise class in part because it’s free, and she frets about spending money on a hat that could have gone to pay the bills.

Julian’s mother’s ideas about traditional Southern values manifest in blatant racism and classism. She tells her son he looks thug-like without a tie, argues that Black people “should rise […] but on their own side of the fence” (186), and is afraid of riding the integrated buses alone. These ideas are rooted in her family’s wealth and social standing, which came from operating a large plantation and owning 200 enslaved people. As such, her classism is inextricable from racism. However, despite her snobbery, racism, and classism, there is also something sympathetic about her character. She is a widow and a woman who has struggled to raise her son on her own. She made sacrifices and maintained her positive outlook. She is often described as innocent and childlike, so small that while riding on the bus, her “little pumps dangled like a child’s and did not quite reach the floor” (191). She also genuinely enjoys playing with Carver on the bus; she thinks that Black children are more adorable than white children, and her patronizing gift of a penny is well-intentioned. When Carver’s mother strikes her, it is perhaps the shock as much as the blow that causes her stroke.

Carver is a little Black boy of around four who gets on the bus with his mother. He is smartly dressed in a plaid suit, complete with a feathered hat, and sits beside Julian’s mother. He doesn’t yet share the prejudices of the adults and quickly becomes enchanted with Julian’s mother, “looking up at her with large fascinated eyes” (193). He refuses to obey his own mother when she tries to make him move from his seat next to “his love” (194). Julian’s mother is enchanted with little Carver, remarking on his cute appearance and playing peek-a-boo with him across the aisle. Despite her fear of integrated buses, she is delighted to have the little boy sitting beside her.

Carver’s mother, “a giant of a woman” with “a bulging figure” (192), boards the bus with her son and sits next to Julian. Her face seems to announce, “DON’T TAMPER WITH ME” (192), and she strictly insists on good behavior from her son. She is more or less the opposite of Julian’s mother; she is large, whereas Julian’s mother is small, and she is unfriendly, whereas Julian’s mother is full of condescending smiles. She is a woman who is used to confronting discrimination, and her patience is short. After she strikes Julian’s mother, Julian claims that Carver’s mother represents “the whole colored race which will no longer take [his mother’s] condescending pennies” (196).

This unnamed Black man boards the bus after Julian and his mother have gotten on. He is described as “well dressed” (190), and he carries a briefcase and a newspaper. While the man does little but read his newspaper, his presence is significant because it reveals much about Julian as he tries to use the Black man to antagonize his mother. When the man boards, Julian immediately rises to sit next to him instead of his mother. He fantasizes about starting a conversation, assuming from the man’s dignified appearance that they might discuss “art or politics or any subject that would be above the comprehension of those around them” (190). However, he can only think to ask the man for a light, even though he doesn’t smoke. The extent of their interaction is a look of annoyance from the man when Julian awkwardly returns the matches. With this, the limitations of Julian’s progressive views are revealed, as he cannot talk to this man as a peer.