In the short story “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, the author Flannery O’Connor uses copious amounts of irony, imagery, and characters in a sort of comedy of errors to hold the reader’s attention and keep him or her interested, while understanding the meaning of the story: the brain creates the inability to detect when they are being hypocritical, or subconsciously exercising prejudice. While O’Connor makes the plot of the story rather simple, the true meaning of the story proves far more complex, dealing with generation-gaps, particularly the inability of the mother, and many other white people, to accept the African-Americans as more than second-class citizens. The characters in the story are invaluable to understanding the meaning.
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One instance of irony comes from the two mothers, while Julian’s mother is racist and shows prejudice toward African-Americans, she still shows her kind-hearted nature toward the good people of the race, like her nurse, and Carver, the little boy. Julian’s mother decides she will give a penny to the boy, despite being tight on money. The ironic element reveals itself: instead of embracing the kindness, Carver’s mother “explode[s] like a piece of machinery that had been given one ounce of pressure too much”, simple-mindedly believing Julian’s mother is being condescending, as Julian suspected the woman would (O’Connor 668). The woman struck Julian’s mother, and the blow ultimately causes her death. Tragically and ironically, she died over an act of kindness. The ugly hat displays irony once more. The author states twice, to reinforce the irony, “with that hat, you won’t see yourself coming and going”, yet she runs into a black woman wearing the exact same hat (O’Connor 666). The irony behind the hat comes from the claim that nobody else should have it, and Julian’s mother paid a large enough amount of money to express buyer’s remorse. Knowing the price and class associated with the hat, the reader can assume the reason Carver’s mother explodes in a fit of rage, is because she feels Julian’s mother sees her as unequal and of lower-class, while the hat proves otherwise. The irony expressed in the story allows the reader to deeper understand the intentions of the characters, and derive a greater understanding of the complex issue in the story, which contrasts the simple plot development O’Connor
One instance of irony comes from the two mothers, while Julian’s mother is racist and shows prejudice toward African-Americans, she still shows her kind-hearted nature toward the good people of the race, like her nurse, and Carver, the little boy. Julian’s mother decides she will give a penny to the boy, despite being tight on money. The ironic element reveals itself: instead of embracing the kindness, Carver’s mother “explode[s] like a piece of machinery that had been given one ounce of pressure too much”, simple-mindedly believing Julian’s mother is being condescending, as Julian suspected the woman would (O’Connor 668). The woman struck Julian’s mother, and the blow ultimately causes her death. Tragically and ironically, she died over an act of kindness. The ugly hat displays irony once more. The author states twice, to reinforce the irony, “with that hat, you won’t see yourself coming and going”, yet she runs into a black woman wearing the exact same hat (O’Connor 666). The irony behind the hat comes from the claim that nobody else should have it, and Julian’s mother paid a large enough amount of money to express buyer’s remorse. Knowing the price and class associated with the hat, the reader can assume the reason Carver’s mother explodes in a fit of rage, is because she feels Julian’s mother sees her as unequal and of lower-class, while the hat proves otherwise. The irony expressed in the story allows the reader to deeper understand the intentions of the characters, and derive a greater understanding of the complex issue in the story, which contrasts the simple plot development O’Connor