What is the significance of Julians mothers response to the black womans hat? What is the significance of Julians response to his...

Julian's mother takes a
great deal of pride in her heritage, and that includes having ancestors who owned plantations
and slaves. She does not wish to see harm come to black people, but she prefers that they rise,
as she says, "'on their own side of the fence.'" She does not believe in
desegregation, and she is racist, but O'Connor does not depict her as a cruel or heartless
character. Julian, on the other hand, is cruel. He does things purposely to hurt his mother, and
he takes pleasure in upsetting her. He treats black people as objects with which he can injure
hergleefully imagining her becoming deathly ill so that he can call a black doctor, or imagining
her anger if he were to bring home a black womannot as actual equals. He is cruel, very cruel,
and thisin a waymakes him worse than she.

One of the ways that she justifies
her expensive hat is by saying, "'I at least won't meet myself coming and going.'" She
imagines that she will be unique in her special hat, but when she meets with the black woman,
with her same hat, on the bus, there are signs that the shock is a bit too much for her.
The

blue in [her eyes] seemed to have turned a bruised
purple. For a moment he had an uncomfortable sense of her innocence, but it lasted only a second
before principle rescued him. Justice entitled him to laugh. His grin hardened until it said to
her as plainly as if he were saying aloud: Your punishment exactly fits your pettiness. This
should teach you a permanent lesson.

His mother is unable
to accept the modern world, and she eventually has a stroke as a result of the effects of her
shock on her blood pressure. She is hurt, it seems, that this black woman is wearing a hat like
hers because she thought it would make her special. Not only is she not unique, but she must
share her position with a black woman: it's absolutely a deplorable and racist thought. It's not
a mature or accepting stance, but it also isn't vicious; she does not wish for harm or violence.
Julian, however, is absolutely vicious; he wants her to be taught a "permanent
lesson," though it seems that he will be the one to learn such a lesson soon. While I may
not agree with the idea that Julian's mother's racism is somehow less detrimental than his own,
O'Connor seems to paint his mother as more "innocent" somehowwhich even Julian
recognizesand Julian as more terrible and vicious and cruel.