Similarity

The similarities between the two stories is rather obvious. To old men from the south move up to New York to live with their daughters. The daughters in both stories seem to find it difficult to live with their fathers because they do not share the same view points, regarding black people, as their fathers do. In “Geranium” Old Dudley says “he didn’t know his own daughter that was raised proper would stay next door to them” to himself (O’Connor 707). Old Dudley, knowing not other way of life than the south way of life believes he raised his daughter “properly”; he believes he raised her to know that letting a black person live next you was simply wrong. Living in the north gives Old Dudley and Tanner a new point of view; they are now able to see how the other half, the north, lives. Both of these old men are shocked by what they see, which is a black person moving into an apartment that is just as nice as the ones they are visiting. They are amazed that these black neighbors are almost equals to their daughters.

Coming from the south is not the only reason why these old men do not accept the north’s way of life; Old Dudley and Tanner come from a different generation than their daughters, obviously. So, naturally this plays a role in how these men handle situations regarding black people. Even though they may have brought their daughters up believing in the same principle, the girls obviously more accepted of another race. Growing up in a different time period than their fathers and living in the north helped contribute to the girls’ understanding and knowledge of others.