Julian's Pride In Flannery O Connor

Finally, Julian and his mother’s collective pride results in their collective suffering. From the beginning, O’Connor characterizes Julian’s opinion towards his mother with disdain. He feels as though “everything that [gives] her pleasure [is] small and depresse[s] him.” He reveals his prideful nature through the pointed thought, believing that his worldly mindset has outgrown the small and closed-minded society that his mother represents. In addition, Julian describes his mother’s repetitive rant about the implications of integration as a “a train on an open track” of which he knows “every stop, every junction, every swamp… and the exact point at which her conclusion roil[s] majestically into the station.” The simile hints at his aforementioned distaste for his mother’s opinions,
Here, O’Connor reveals Julian’s true emotion for his mother as he cries a string of comforting, but meaningless words. Thus, though her fate results from her own pride and prejudice, she is simultaneously atoning for Julian’s mistakes. Though she takes the physical burden of paying for Julian’s pride, Julian is forced to bear the emotional weight of knowing that his ignorance resulted in such catastrophe. O’Connor describes “the lights drift[ing] farther away” as Julian desperately runs for help, once again reiterating the train imagery. Regardless of a passenger’s frustration, a one-track train cannot return to a previous station, and as the lights ahead of Julian fade, so does his hope of saving his