30 pages • 1 hour read
Everything That Rises Must Converge
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Themes
The Complexity of Morality
Morality is a central theme in “Everything That Rises Must Converge”; however, right and wrong are not necessarily clearly marked. O’Connor, well-known for her morally ambiguous characters, frequently explores the complexity of morality and how people are simultaneously good and bad. Julian and his mother are an excellent example of this dichotomy. Each believes completely in their own moral superiority, yet both are flawed characters and have their own moral shortcomings. Although O’Connor pits them against one another in a typical display of right vs. wrong, neither character can be considered purely moral.
Julian’s mother is the story’s antagonist and is mostly portrayed as being in the moral wrong, particularly in the eyes of her son. She is explicitly racist, arguing that life was better for Black people when they were enslaved and refusing to ride the integrated buses alone. However, there is also something innocent and even childlike about her. Julian notes that his mother’s eyes remained “as innocent and untouched by experience as they must have been when she was ten” (184) and suggests that she is more or less a product of her circumstances, saying “if she had started from any of the right premises, more might have been expected of her” (189). When her penny is so violently rejected at the end of the story, her worldview is destroyed, and she again reverts to a childlike innocence, calling out for her grandfather and her nurse.
On the other hand, Julian prides himself on his open-mindedness and despises his mother’s racism. However, he also wraps himself in a shroud of perceived superiority; he even feels satisfied seeing discrimination in action because it affirms his beliefs. Furthermore, his progressive attitude seems motivated more by a desire to torment his mother than a true moral conviction, and his deeply held racist beliefs become apparent as the story progresses. Julian fantasizes about teaching his mother a lesson by bringing home a “distinguished Negro professor or lawyer” (191) or a Black girlfriend, yet he reflects that he has no Black friends despite trying to befriend “some of the better types” (191). He also fantasizes about the wealth and prestige his family used to enjoy, thinking “bitterly” about the mansion that was “lost to him” (196). Ultimately, it is difficult to say whether Julian or his mother is truly a better person than the other, as both harbor racist beliefs and struggle to adapt to the new integrated world they live in.
Carver’s mother also demonstrates how morality isn’t necessarily black and white. Especially in the context of the civil rights movement’s famous nonviolent resistance tactics, her choice to shove Julian’s mother is striking. Violence is generally considered immoral, but Carver’s mother isn’t characterized as a bad person; she is reacting to being followed and a perceived insult. Given Julian and his mother’s racism even after integration, O’Connor uses a violent action to illustrate the complexity of morality and the ways integration alone can fall short of repairing a racist society.
Generational Conflict
The main conflict in “Everything That Rises Must Converge” occurs between Julian and his mother and is largely a product of their generational differences. O’Connor uses their relationship as a mirror to reflect the changes in the South more generally. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, society in the Southern United States changed very quickly, and Julian and his mother grew up under radically different circumstances. His mother reflects on her childhood memories with her Black nurse in her grandfather’s already “decaying” plantation mansion. She reminds Julian that his family was wealthy; they were landowners, enslavers, and even politicians. Their neighborhood now, however, was “a fashionable neighborhood forty years ago” (184), and Julian’s mother worries about spending too much money on a hat.
Julian’s mother believes that her heritage makes her who she is. She prides herself on her lineage, class, manners, and graciousness. She believes this makes her a good person, and she is confident and secure in her identity as a cultured woman from a good family. On the other hand, the college-educated Julian sees his mother as a relic of a society that no longer exists. He believes his mother fails to see how the world has changed around her, and he feels superior in his intellectual prowess and progressive ideas. However, Julian’s character suggests that even white Southerners who claim to be open-minded struggle to accept their new reality. Despite his outspoken opposition to his mother’s racism, Julian also fails to treat Black people equally and reveals various prejudices. Furthermore, he secretly regrets the lost grandeur of the family plantation, thinking of it with “longing” (186). He wants to be progressive but also resents his loss of status.
Another example of generational conflict in “Everything That Rises Must Converge” is between Carver and his mother. Carver’s mother is a woman who has endured a lifetime of racism and discrimination. Like Julian’s mother, the bus is likely a fraught place for her, a central space in the civil rights movement and a place where she is forced into close proximity with racist white people. As such, she is strict with her son and suspicious of Julian’s mother, trying to prevent them from playing with one another. Carver, in his youthful innocence, does not share his mother’s mistrust and vigilance. He is delighted with Julian’s mother and disobeys his mother to continue sitting next to her. Notably, Julian and Carver, the members of the new generation, are the only named characters in the story, suggesting the importance of moving forward and instilling different values in young people.
Class, Appearance, and Reality
Julian and his mother rely heavily on appearances when judging others. They believe that looking and behaving a certain way makes some individuals, including themselves, better than others. However, outward appearances can be deceiving, and this preoccupation ultimately exposes Julian and his mother’s disconnect with reality. Despite the importance that the characters place on physical appearance, they are both guilty of living in fantasy worlds and are often oblivious to how they are perceived by others, seeing only the things that confirm their already-established worldviews.
Julian’s mother’s ideas of class are strongly associated with dressing and looking a particular way. She wears gloves and pumps on the bus to the gym and tells Julian he “look[s] like a thug” (187) when he removes his tie. He responds, “Then I must be one” (187), mocking his mother’s linking of class and appearance with the suggestion that looking like something is the same as being that thing. On the other hand, Julian’s mother refuses to acknowledge the “uniform ugliness” (184) of their once affluent neighborhood, preferring instead to think that she and her son are lucky to live there. Maintaining this illusion of status allows her to preserve her sense of class and, therefore, identity.
Despite how he mocks his mother, Julian has plenty of appearance-based prejudices of his own. In attempting to make friends with Black people on the bus, he only tries with those who look like they hold important professions. He is disappointed to discover that a “distinguished-looking” (191) Black man is actually an undertaker. When the well-dressed Black man boards the bus, Julian thinks he would be a good candidate to teach his mother a lesson because of how the man is dressed; he assumes from his cultured appearance that they could discuss intellectual topics that the other passengers wouldn’t understand. Despite Julian’s purported lack of prejudice, his classism is just as pronounced as his mother’s, and he only seeks out conversations with those he believes look intellectual enough to be his peers. Ironically, Julian doesn’t prove himself capable of having such conversations, highlighting the gap between Julian’s perceived middle-class intellectualism and his reality.
Perhaps the clearest example of the disconnect between appearances and reality is the new hat that Julian’s mother purchases. The “hideous hat” (184) was an expensive purchase for her, and she is proud of it, feeling that it is distinguished and unique. However, from Julian’s point of view, the hat looks “jaunty and pathetic” (184). His mother is a far cry from the high-class lady she believes herself to be, emphasized by her considering returning the hat to pay the bills. Furthermore, Carver’s mother gets on the bus wearing the exact same hat, revealing that Julian’s mother’s sense of racial superiority is misplaced. The hat exposes the reality that Julian’s mother and Carver’s mother are on the path to becoming social and economic equals.
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