Julian is the protagonist of “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” He is a young white man who recently graduated from college and is an aspiring writer. However, for the time being, he lives with his elderly mother, and although he sells typewriters, he remains financially dependent on her. Julian helps his mother out of obligation, acknowledging her sacrifices for him, but he despises her. The only way he can tolerate their weekly trips to the YMCA is through a “determination to make himself completely numb” (184) and retreating into his mind. He believes she is a woman with “foolish views,” particularly her outdated ideas about class and race, and he congratulates himself for not sharing her prejudices. Julian is decidedly gloomy; he is pessimistic about his future and “as disenchanted with [the world] as a man of fifty” (189).

However, Julian’s suffering has a degree of self-righteousness; his progressive beliefs separate him from his mother and others and fuel his feelings of superiority and self-importance. He feels “a certain satisfaction to see injustice in daily operation” because he doesn’t believe anyone around him is worth knowing. As much as Julian detests his mother’s behavior and worldview, he emulates her in more ways than he knows.