Summary Of Julian's Hierarchy

The mother’s hierarchy is incompatible with her son’s most blatant one, because the latter’s hierarchy is almost solely designed to spite the mother. The mother, raised in a society of racism and white supremacy, is at an age where change is exceptionally difficult; additionally, she is described as innocent and childlike, making it difficult to picture her as someone who is racist consciously out of malice. Her hierarchy may be reliant on race, but it is a product of childrearing, rather than intentional harm. In contrast, Julian carries a hierarchy of intellectual superiority and of race. He is firmly aware of the errors of racism, and in his mind, this awareness makes him superior to his mother. However, he frequently has very racist thoughts …show more content…
Julian unabashedly exhibits the structure of his hierarchy, exercising his superiority without much thought, even after his mother’s long-time hierarchy is brutally and violently upended by a black woman wearing the same hat as she is. The conflicts that arise from their incompatible hierarchies embed an innate need in Julian to antagonize his mother, and instead of pausing to ask himself why and to appreciate all that his mother has done for him (406), he simply follows through with the impulses to demean her. As the events on the bus culminate to a highly embarrassing act from Julian’s mother, her attempt to give the black woman’s son a penny, Julian fails to realize the shock that his mother is going through, and instead takes the opportunity to further cement his own hierarchy in the shattered pieces of his mother’s. However, by goading her with the penny that fell to the floor (419), he only worsens her state of shock; as he finally realizes the danger his mother is in, his own hierarchy crumbles as he transforms completely, from the taunting, rude son to a panicky, guilt-filled …show more content…
O’Connor’s intention is to point the blame of social stagnancy to the younger generation that grew up knowing the wrongs of racism, and yet, still cling to it. By establishing Julian’s hierarchy the way she did, O’Connor effectively creates a caricature of her modern youth, modelling him into the most unfortunate of them and showing these youth, through distortion of the effects of their hierarchies, what racism and self-entitlement in terms of intellectual superiority will cost them. With Good Country People, O’Connor chooses to use artificiality and man-made intellect as the basis of Joy-Hulga’s hierarchy because an awareness of the wrongness in finding superiority with education needed to be implemented into society. Like Julian, Joy-Hulga becomes a caricature of the generation of well-educated, but snobbish young people; O’Connor’s intention is to bring their attention to how foolish they seem when they treat others as inferiors because of perceived intelligence or social standing. For The Partridge Festival, O’Connor incorporates value for independence as the basis the story’s hierarchy because the intention of the story is the bring awareness to societal apathy, such as the town’s reaction of continuing a festival after six murders, and a hierarchy based on