"Everything That Rises Must Converge"

“Everything That Rises Must Converge”

Mary Flannery O’Connor

    “For answer she kept going. Julian followed along, his hands behind him. He saw no reason to let the lesson she had had go without backing it up with an explanation of its meaning. She might as well be made to understand what had happened to her. “Don’t think that was just an uppity Negro woman,” he said. “That was the whole colored race which will no longer take your condescending pennies. That was your black double. She can wear the same hat as you, and to be sure,” he added gratuitously (because he thought it was funny), “it looked better on her than it did on you. What all this means,” he said, “is that the old world is gone. The old manners are obsolete and your graciousness is not worth a damn.” He thought bitterly of the house that had been lost for him. “You aren’t who you think you are,” he said” (7).

            This passage emphasizes a theme of role reversal that is seen throughout Flannery O’Connor’s short story. When Julian and his mother are on the bus, his mother is constantly telling him that he needs to know who he is. She is extremely concerned with appearances and impressing other people. She goes so far as to brag to a stranger on the bus about her son’s success even though he isn’t successful at all. She is constantly trying to get him to better himself and make him look better. For example, she concocts the story about him selling and typewriters and chastising him for looking like a thug when he removes his tie. She pleads with him to create an identity for himself that she would approve of.

            Julian, in a large way, antagonizes his mother for defining herself and never changing her views. Throughout the whole story, he devises ways to get her to change her views. He wants her to adapt to the changing culture one hundred years after the abolition of slavery. His mother grew up in post Civil War America with potentially racist parents. She makes references to her grandfather who owned a plantation with two hundred slaves. She is proud of her heritage and upbringing. Therefore, she sees no reason to change her views. In this passage, Julian is criticizing his mother for her condescending behavior towards the young boy and his mother on the bus. He jokes that the hat looked better on the other woman just to spite her.

Julian is reluctant to define himself because society and culture are always changing. He fears that if he were to define himself, as his mother wanted him to, he would be just as stubborn as her in keeping up appearances. He resents his mother for being stuck in her ways and unwilling to change and he fears the same would happen to him. He fears committing to anything such as moving out or getting a job.  This fear paralyzes him and prevents him from doing anything successful because it might conform his beliefs or values in a negative way.

Instead of reflecting internally on his issues, he takes his frustrations out on his mother. He condones her inappropriate behavior and lectures her as if she were a child. He tries to get her to understand that she has to change her beliefs and values. This role reversal is a coping mechanism so he does not have to look at his beliefs and define his identity.