As the reader discovers that Julian's mother is dying and leaving Julian completely helpless in the middle of the street, so many thoughts and emotions run through our minds. While some are left speechless that the story took a completely different turn than expected, a more pessimistic reader may say that Julian and his mother got exactly what they deserved. Although Julian and his mother certainly did not help their ultimate fate, they are simply two prime examples of two people who had lost their way in the complex world in which we live in. For Julian's mother, losing her way meant losing her life. For Julian, losing his way meant losing his mother and being left on earth alone, and never getting to let his mother know how much he loved her. It shows how a person's actions ultimately will catch up to them one way or another no matter what path they decide to take in life. If the two didn't constantly bicker and provoke each other, they both would have safely made it to the YMCA, and Julian's mother would most likely still be alive. Being able to understand one another and accept their differences in beliefs would have saved them both.

At the very end of the story, Julian's mother tells her son to "Tell Caroline to come get me," (O'Connor, 246). Julian's mother says this because of her sudden realization that being a racist her entire life was wrong, almost as if it gave her some sort of redemption. In that moment, she realized that she had been close to Caroline, her nurse, when she was a child. Caroline was an African American, but that didn't change her relationship with Julian's mother, proving that her racist ways were morally wrong. All the built-up guilt she had accumulated throughout her life spilled over as she was dying, probably out of fear from her wrongdoings in her final moments of life.

We start to look at Julian's mother more as a person rather than a racist white woman. Once we realize that she does hold some positive qualities, we begin to feel for her. Although throughout reading the story the reader dislikes her character, we don't expect for her to die because of her actions. She had racist tendencies, which was prevalent, but at the same time Julian's mother was not one-hundred percent bad. Growing up in her time period, she was only thinking the way she had been brought up to think, and perhaps that is not how she originally was.

Julian's mother also requests to Julian to "Tell Grandpa to come get me" (O'Connor, 246). Throughout the story, Julian describes his mother to have "innocent eyes" and "For a moment he had an uncomfortable sense of her innocence, but it lasted only a second before principle rescued him" (O'Connor, 243). This child-like quality she possesses makes things clearer when she asks for her grandfather at her time of death, seeing that a part of her always was that innocent child deep down. A child does not know to be racist  --  it is something that is taught. Julian's mother's innocence had been inside of her for as long as she had lived, and she was merely a product of the environment she grew up in, believing that slavery and "being above" others was acceptable.

On the other hand, just because she realizes how she had been living was wrong, does not necessarily redeem her. If she really wanted to be redeemed, she would not have forced the African American mother on the bus in such an awkward situation when she tried to give her little boy a penny. Julian's mother knew that by giving the little African American boy a penny, it not only put the child in a situation where he was subservient, but the mother as well, as if she were trying to "put the African American mother and her child back in their place." Julian, although he tried in all the wrong ways, had indeed tried to show his mother the pathway to true redemption. However, she was not interested in treating others with kindness until it was too late. True redemption required Julian's mother to look as African Americans as her equal, which was nearly impossible. She had lived in her mindset for such a long time, it was how she knew to think. Before, she believed that "They should rise, yes, but on their own side of the fence." (O'Connor, 237). 

Initially, she had no interest in doing the right thing. In the end, we conclude that the only reason she wanted redemption was to save her own skin when she was being judged in the eyes of God, which is when Julian says "'From now on you've got to live in a new world and face a few realities for a change. Buck up ...  it won't kill you'" (O'Connor, 246). This just so happens to be the exact moment when she passes away, leaving the message behind this moment that she ultimately couldn't change her ways, so in return she had to pay the ultimate price. This provokes the reader to think twice about their actions, and hopefully making us more mindful of how we treat each other. No one wants to die knowing that they were cruel to everyone, and vice versa.

Julian, on the other hand, is completely devastated when he realizes his mother is dying in his arms. The readers see a very big jump in Julian's personality from the entire story to the last paragraph. He initially calls his mother a "dumpy figure" and making her seem like he saw her more as a nuisance than his mother, claiming he only did the things he did for her out of guilt for helping him his entire life. However, at the very end, he's wailing for his mother, "A tide of darkness seemed to be sweeping her from him. 'Mother!' he cried. 'Darling, sweetheart, wait!' ...  He dashed forward and fell at her side, crying." (O'Connor, 246).' In the end, Julian is not redeemed for realizing he loves his mother as she's dying, because just like his mother, he realizes too late. He never treated her with kindness when she was alive, when in all honesty he had no reason to treat his mother as poorly as he did, but he decided to show his true feelings as she was dying. Honestly, there are no second chances in life. Everyone is given a limited amount of time, and if they chose to waste it, there's no going back from that.

Because Julian realized he loved his mother a little too late, we take away from the story that we should 'Live each day as if it were your last'. If Julian would have shown his true love and devotion to his mother when she was alive, perhaps this whole coincidence could have been completely avoided. Just like if Julian's mother would have treated each and every living being with the same kindness and respect as she thought she deserved from others, not only would she have felt naturally redeemed, but also she wouldn't have portrayed the guilt she possessed in her final words. Julian and his mother both demonstrate for the reader what happens when two people waste their lives worrying over the wrong things in life, and their unavoidable fate that comes with it.

Although we try not to let it cross our minds much, the human brain naturally worries about death. When this happens, we immediately want to make better life choices and live the way we want to, because our time is limited. Even though that is what we want and we may try to be a better person, usually the behavior does not stick with us. We become wrapped up in our own world, not caring about what happens around us as long as it does not affect us. Although neither Julian nor his mother showed evidence of wanting to change, it is assumed. However, Julian and his mother no longer have the option of making up for their mistakes. Julian's mother is dead, and that is the main person Julian needed to reconcile with.

The fate that Julian had been given will now leave him forever feeling unfulfilled, constantly wondering how things would have turned out if he had shown his mother he had loved her every once in a while.

 If he truly loved his mother, he will carry the guilt of her death with him everywhere he goes, even if he wasn't technically the cause of it. It's a likely possibility that Julian only believed he loved his mother in that moment because of the reality of his mother's death, when he actually did not care about his mother. Of course, no one will ever truly know, considering we have to judge Julian based off the actions in the story, and he's the hardest character to understand. 

All the while, as each reader judges both Julian and his mother for how they behave the entire story, many of us have no room to pick apart how they act. The world is still just as cruel and unjust as it was portrayed in O'Connor's short story, many people are still stuck in the traditions of treating others poorly simply because they don't understand. So, perhaps, what we should learn the most from Julian and his mother's unfortunate ending is to take it as a warning. A warning that if we don't begin to change the environment around us, each and every one of us will end up coming to terms with what we should have done instead of what we actually did with our time on earth.

