a colored man on the bus the climax of the story began to build. This action was taken by Julian as a way to annoy his mother. He even went as far as to ask the colored man for a light which was a gesture totally out of contempt because he had nothing to light. The way Flannery O’Connor describes the colored woman who enters the bus is a typical stereotype of a black mother. O’Connor’s first descriptive words of this woman are “ large, gaily dressed sullen looking colored women - she was a giant women,” The author was able with those adjectives strip this woman of her femininity and create an eyesore. The stereotype is black women particularly mothers are large and rough on the edges. This also is evidence of a gender bias by O’Connor, The colored man who entered the bus first was described as “well dressed and carried a briefcase,” which suggests decency and even a higher level of social acceptance than the colored woman.It is the colored woman that O’Connor uses to bring Julian’s mother to reality. The scene involving the shiny new penny would have been accepted in previous years but surely times had changed and to her dismay so had the tolerance level of colored people even the women. The blow she received from the colored women was not the cause of the tragic end to his mother’s life. It was the shock it brought to her that life had changed and that she was just another face in the crowd. No longer did the name Godhighs hold social prestige. As she raked his face looking for the pride she tried desperately to instill in him, she failed to see it. There was no need for her to precede living, it was also at this point that Julian is “postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow.” This statement is significant to end this story and O’Connor left no room for speculation any longer. Julian did love his mother and now is ...
