Flannery O'Connor was a 20th century American novelist and short story writer known for her Southern Gothic style. She wrote the short story collection "Everything That Rises Must Converge" in her final years while battling lupus. The title story examines the generational divide over racial integration through the relationship between Julian, a young man who supports integration, and his racist mother. When Julian takes his mother on a bus to teach her a lesson about racism, her racist actions toward a black child lead to a confrontation where she is ultimately killed. The story explores themes of social conflict between generations regarding racism and how appearances can belie reality.

1. Everything That Rises Must Converge
- Flannery O'Connor
-Nava Teja

2. Flannery O'Connor
• March 25, 1925 – August 3, 1964 (39), Georgia, USA
• Lost father at the age of 15
• Planned to start her career as a political cartoonist
• Studied social sciences and journalism
• Novelist, essayist, reviews and commentaries
• Fascinated by birds
• At the age of 25 diagnosed with lupus
• Wrote more than 24 short stories and 2 novels while battling Lupus
• “Complete Stories” won the 1972 U.S.National Book Award for Fiction

3. Writing style
• Southern Gothic style
• Subgenre of gothic fiction
• Subgenre of gothic horror – combines fiction, horror and romanticism
• Reflects her own Roman catholic faith
• Examines morality and ethics
• Issue of race in background
• Trademark technique – Foreshadowing
• “All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not
very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as
hard, hopeless and brutal”– Flannery O'Connor

4. Everything That Rises Must Converge
• Wrote in her final decade
• Published after six months of her death
• Eponymous story of the short story collection
• Title refers to a work by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin titled “Omega Point”
• Pierre Teilhard de Chadrin (1881-1955)
• Won O’Henry Award in 1963 for the short story collection

5. Historical Context
• African-American Civil Rights Movement (1955-1968)
• Montgomery Bus Boycott 1956
• Desegregating Little Rock Central High School 1957
• Freedom Rides 1961
• Setting
• Integrated Southern United States
• Recent years after the integration
• Point of view: Omniscient Limited

6. Characters
• Julian – Protagonist
• Grew up in “New South” (Southern US after racial integration)
• An embittered recent college graduate (Age 25 to 27)
• He feels that his mother is outdated
• Wants to be a writer
• Expects others to live up to his idealized expectations
• Supports racial equality but unable to relate to African Americans
• Wants to live in grandfather’s mansion despite of the slaves
• Static

7. Characters (Continued)
• Julian’s mother – Antagonist
• Grew up in Southern US (before integration)
• Age - above 50
• Widow and struggled a lot to support her son
• Mentally stuck in the past and says that she is adjustable
• Racist
• Treats her son as a Hero, though he is a weak person and disrespectful to her
• Very Kind and loving to children
• Static
• Woman with canvas sandals, woman with protruding teeth, black man, black
woman, Carver

8. Plot Overview
• Julian escorts his mother to a weekly weight-
loss class to reduce her high blood pressure
• Julian’s mother refuses to take bus alone since
integration
• He want’s to teach her a lesson about racism
• They board the bus and she points out with
relief that there are only white people on bus

9. Plot Overview (Continued)
• In the next stop a well dressed African American man
boards
• Julian asks him for a light to teach his mother a lesson
• Julian daydreams about other ways to teach her a lesson
• Bringing a black lawyer or professor to home for dinner
• Taking his mother to black doctor when she requires treatment
• Bringing a black woman home and forcing his mother to accept
her

10. Plot Overview (Continued)
• A black woman boards with her young son
• Little boy clambers onto the seat next to Julian’s
mother
• Black woman squeezes into the seat next to
Julian
• Julian realizes that the black woman wears the
same hat as his mother
• Both parties get down at the same stop

11. Plot Overview (Continued)
• Julian’s mother offers a penny to Carver
• Carver’s mother knocks her down
• Julian berates his mother and pulls her
• She looks disoriented, sways for a moment
and stumbles
• Dies with one eye fixed on Julian’s face

12. Themes
• Social Conflict as a Generational Conflict (Racism)
• She believes in slavery
• Julian supports racial equality
• Lineage as Wellbeing
• Family heritage gives them an absolute social standing
• Appearance as a Faulty Measure of Reality
• Julian’s mother rely heavily on her dressing style

13. Symbols
• The Hat
• Visually demonstrates that both women are now essentially the same
• Highlights the absurdity of segregation and racial inequality
• The Penny
• Represents patronizing attitude towards African Americans
• Symbolic persistence of blacks’ dependence on whites
• Motifs
• Social Conduct

14. Comments
• Neither character is truly immoral towards blacks
• Julian
• Too judgmental about his mother
• Wrong approach of teaching a lesson
• Mrs. Chestny
• Hardworking and caring
• Has to go through a transition from a world of slavery to a life with freedom
and equality for everyone

15. References
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannery_O'Connor
• http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/f/flanneryo116575.html
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Migration_(African_American)
• http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/everything-that-rises- must-
converge/
• http://www.shmoop.com/everything-that-rises-must-converge/

16. Thank You