Everything That Rises Must Converge

The short story "Everything that Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O'Connor, covers the radical social changes of the South that the characters Julian and his mother experience. Although Julian and his mother have differing views regarding the equal integration of African Americans into daily activities of American life, their different views together reveals the underlying theme of this short story. Julian and his mother represents two different generations and how each generation has a significantly different social views; Julian on one hand is an advocate for the integration of the African Americans whereas his mother still strongly holds onto the traditional values. Despite the new "freedom" that the African Americans obtained after much suffering, there is undoubtedly racism and discrimination that still lurks the American society. The depiction of the old and the new south through the use of the characters Julian and his mother reveals the underlying meaning of the story that change is inevitable and therefore, the only way to go about it is to embrace and accept it because if we keep pushing for consistency (old ways/traditions), there will come a point where it is no longer possible to remain that way leading to a negative outcome. Through O'Connor's usage of characterization, setting and symbolism, she is able to convey the conflict between the races and the complicated social changes and bring the story together as a whole. Julian and his mother in the story are two characters that greatly conflicts with one another. Not only does one representing the new South and the other representing the old South, their characters is ironic because they both have very strong view points regarding African Americans. Despite Julian's liberated and intellectual view on race he is in actuality a very weak character because not only are his judgements base on stereotypes of African American he is also unable to communicate with them. In the story, every time Julian