Analysis Of Flannery O Conner's Everything That Rises Must Converge

Flannery O’Conner’s short story “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, is about a young man named Julian and his mother during the era of integration in the United States. The story starts with Julian, as he waits for his mother to get ready to go to the Y, Julian is seen leaning against the door frame, waiting like Saint Sebastian for the arrows to begin piercing him (ETRMC). Once Julian’s mother is ready to go and all dressed up as if she was royalty, Julian and his mother make their way to the bus together, ever since integration came into action she feared riding the bus alone. Walking towards the bus stop, Julian and his mother conversed about their past family members, his mother siding with the idea that they come from prestige members …show more content…
Suddenly the bus stopped and an African-American man got on the bus, described as a well-dressed man with a briefcase, Julian anticipated the opportunity to speak to him to simply anger his mother. Julian’s attempt to speak the man failed, as the bus stopped again and a black woman with her son stepped on and sat next to Julian, while her son sat next to Julian’s mother; Julian observed as his mother’s face turned gray and there was a look of dull recognition in her eyes (ETRMC). The black woman already annoyed by the presence and comfort that Julian’s mother showed towards her son, the bus came to a sudden stop where, coincidently happened to be the stop for both mothers and sons. Getting off the bus, Julian’s mother had the idea of giving the woman’s son a penny, as she called after the boy to offer him a penny, the woman charged Julian’s mother, slamming her purse and fist across Julian’s mothers face, knocking her down with a thump as she lay on the cold …show more content…
For example, in the first paragraph of page three in the short story “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, Julian’s true colors are shown when his mother talks about the old house Julian’s grandfather use to own, he expresses himself, saying,” It occurred to him that it was he, not she, who could have appreciated it. He preferred its threadbare elegance to anything…” (ETRMC), showing that Julian might be more materialistic than he realized. Julian is portrayed in the short story as a “realist”, demonstrating that times are finally coming to a change and how he is a better person than his mother for not judging people upon their skin color. Julian does appear to make more interaction and does try to communicate more with the black people in the story, but usually just to anger his mother or he basically “chooses” the black people to talk to. This basically categorizes Julian in the story from that era, as the modernized male yet still righteous only for his personal gain, which concludes to a personal belief that O’Connor was demonstrating much more than a short story about a teen and his mother, but the true problems of that era through her writing. Although it is said the O’Connor happened to be racial herself during that time she presumable acknowledges the events that are taken place. Other readers