Intellectualism vs. Anti-intellectualism: Hindrance to Equality. The root of racism generated a profound partition among American society that required generational burden to undo its outcome. In the 1960s, when O’Connor published her short story, Everything that Rises Must Converge, there was a social commentary in the Southern about the civil right movement. At the time, there was a division of standpoint amongst white Americans towards the movement based on the dichotomy of literate vs. illiterate. Andrews, Beyerlein, and Farnum, while analyzing inconsistent of perspective among the Southern white American’s, found that literate white American were more supportive of the movement than those illiterate white Americans
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anti-intellectualism among educated white Americans while writing her short story, Everything that Rises Must Converge. The illiterate mother of Julian is a typical racist, who shows her racism perspective towards African-Americans (O’Connor 495). On the other hand, the educated Julian tries to give his mother antiracism lesson by revoking her racist action throughout their journey to the reducing class (O’Connor 496). Thus, he seems to have a positive attitude towards the black Americans. However, O’Connor’s story also shows Julian’s hidden perspective on racism. During their bus trip to their destination, rather than associating and creating a normal conversation while sitting next to well-dressed black America, Julian asked for a match though he doesn’t smoke (O’Connor 501). His attention was solely towards to his mother, and he used the black man as some commodity to annoy his mother, which was humiliation. In the story, Julian’s perception of racism is also seen when he was daydreaming about being a friend with educated black Americans only (O’Connor 502). His desire shows not only his intention of making his mother angry but also his hidden intention racism by considering statue as the only criteria to be friends with …show more content…
anti-intellectualism by showing the contribution of education to the deviations of racist perspective among the society and the hindrance laid on the educated individuals who are being highly influenced by racist society. It is easy to blame Julian for his hidden perspective of racism while reading the story, but he is not as racist as his mother. Besides, it wasn’t an easy task to getting rid of a belief that is highly integrated internally throughout childhood. Tolerating and not actively displaying his dislike of African Americans is a step forward against all the hindrance that is surrounding him including his own mother’s racist opinion. Everything that Rises Must Converge also shows us the courage of all educated young white American’s contribution to the race equality. Nowadays young generations live by tolerating and respecting every diversity including race because of the way that they are upraised, and education supplied more to their ideology of race equality. But in the mid-20th century, things were different. Young white Americans were raised in a racist environment. So, it takes courage to move ahead while the racism perspective of the white society was not only manipulating them at that moment but also deeply rooted in them at an early age. This story shows the obstacle and a slight shift to race equality in one generation of a family, and hint us the courage of educated white
anti-intellectualism among educated white Americans while writing her short story, Everything that Rises Must Converge. The illiterate mother of Julian is a typical racist, who shows her racism perspective towards African-Americans (O’Connor 495). On the other hand, the educated Julian tries to give his mother antiracism lesson by revoking her racist action throughout their journey to the reducing class (O’Connor 496). Thus, he seems to have a positive attitude towards the black Americans. However, O’Connor’s story also shows Julian’s hidden perspective on racism. During their bus trip to their destination, rather than associating and creating a normal conversation while sitting next to well-dressed black America, Julian asked for a match though he doesn’t smoke (O’Connor 501). His attention was solely towards to his mother, and he used the black man as some commodity to annoy his mother, which was humiliation. In the story, Julian’s perception of racism is also seen when he was daydreaming about being a friend with educated black Americans only (O’Connor 502). His desire shows not only his intention of making his mother angry but also his hidden intention racism by considering statue as the only criteria to be friends with …show more content…
anti-intellectualism by showing the contribution of education to the deviations of racist perspective among the society and the hindrance laid on the educated individuals who are being highly influenced by racist society. It is easy to blame Julian for his hidden perspective of racism while reading the story, but he is not as racist as his mother. Besides, it wasn’t an easy task to getting rid of a belief that is highly integrated internally throughout childhood. Tolerating and not actively displaying his dislike of African Americans is a step forward against all the hindrance that is surrounding him including his own mother’s racist opinion. Everything that Rises Must Converge also shows us the courage of all educated young white American’s contribution to the race equality. Nowadays young generations live by tolerating and respecting every diversity including race because of the way that they are upraised, and education supplied more to their ideology of race equality. But in the mid-20th century, things were different. Young white Americans were raised in a racist environment. So, it takes courage to move ahead while the racism perspective of the white society was not only manipulating them at that moment but also deeply rooted in them at an early age. This story shows the obstacle and a slight shift to race equality in one generation of a family, and hint us the courage of educated white