In the essay below, Maida discusses Julians experience of convergence, comparing and contrasting OConnors use of the concept with Teilhard de Chardins philosophy. In a discussion of the authors unique comedy, [Brainard] Cheney contends [in his essay Miss OConnor Creates Unusual Humor out of Ordinary Sin in the Sewanee Renew Autumn, 1963] that this kind of humor might be called metaphysical humor. He describes the effect in this way: She begins with familiar surfaces that seem secular at the outset and in a secular tone of satire or humor. Scarletts response to the convergence which she sees around her in postwar Georgia is more constructive: she accepts what she must and changes what she can. The family moved to Milledgeville, Georgia, her mothers hometown, where they lived in her mothers ancestral home at the center of town. are the ones that are half white," mark her indelibly as a member of that generation which failed to concern itself with the problem of social justice. But no one has yet examined the implications of the title. and shook him from his meditation," and "He was tilted out of his fantasy again as the bus stopped." Find related themes, quotes, symbols, characters, and more. One evening, following the racial integration of the public buses in the South, Julian Chestny is accompanying his mother to an exercise class at the "Y." Everything That Rises Must Converge focuses on her complex, troubled relationship to Julian as he tries to confront her on these views. They're like having in-class notes for every discussion!, This is absolutely THE best teacher resource I have ever purchased. OConnor portrays the fallen nature of humankind in terms of what she sees from where she is: the arrogance and blindness that divides son from mother, as well as white from black. When Emilys father dies, she finds herself falling for a second class Yankee whom her father could have never approved of. The most obvious scenes in which she uses the latter technique are introduced by the comment that "Julian was withdrawing into the inner compartment of his mind where he spent most of his time" and by the comment that "he retired again into the high-ceilinged room." Carvers Mother wears an identical hat, travels alone with her son, and is also annoyed by having to sit with someone elses son. However, Julians views on racial relations are rooted in his spite towards his mother. Thomas R Arp and Greg Johnson. His rough demeanor changes and he becomes almost infantilized. As she dies, she looks at her son as if she doesnt know him and asks for her childhood nurse, who was a black woman. Blacks have gained both a greater physical freedom in their world and increased opportunities for socioeconomic mobility. He has so carefully set himself off from his mother that, through the pretenses of intellect, he is as far removed from her as Oedipus from Jocasta. Having thus been made aware of his depravity, Julian will have been placed in a position which may produce repentance and ultimately redemption. HISTORICAL AND LITERARY ORIGINS OF MOTHER GOOSE This also affords him the opportunity to morally grandstand over the other Southern whites instead of actively assessing the ways that he too might be contributing to misunderstanding between the races. Everything That Rises Must Converge Analysis. Their differences come to a head during a ride they take together on a recently integrated city bus. The lesson that he had hoped his mother would learn turns out to be meant for him; the confrontation of the two women with identical hats is comical, but the comedy is quickly reversed. The fact that the black woman wore an identical hat (OConnor takes care to describe it twice) is another blatant emblem of convergence, which Julians mother had tried to deny by reducing the other woman to a subhuman level and seeing the implied relationship between them as a comic impossibility [as Dorothy Tuck McFarland wrote in her book Flannery OConnor]that is, by responding as if the black woman were a monkey that had stolen her hat. It is reminiscent of Scarletts shocked reaction to Emmies dressing like a lady (which she is not). Darling, sweetheart, wait!" Since the main impetus towards desegregation came from the U.S. Federal Government, the resistance of Southern white reactionaries threatened to create strife not just between the races, but also between Dixie and the rest of the nation. He feels burdened by his retarded mother and so is free to enjoy the pleasure of his chosen martyrdom to her small desires. Integration emerges as the divisive issue. The two authors use irony to highlight similar defects in the main characters. She goes to the meetings because she has high blood pressure, but considers them one of her few pleasures.. A devout Roman Catholic, OConnor differed from other writers in her generation in that she wrote from a deeply religious perspective. What can this theory have to do with the bleak view of human nature that OConnor presents in the story? But Julians mother continues to joke with the boy. ", The title of this story and of O'Connor's second collection of stories is taken from the works of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, a priest-paleontologist. OConnor, Flannery, Mysteries and Manners: Occasional Prose, edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. . The superficial similarities in their situations may have led Julians mother to emulate Scarlett, consciously or otherwise. The narrative technique OConnor uses to create this effect is called irony. When Julian realizes that the hat is the cause of his mother's discomfort, he takes pleasure in watching her pained reaction, having only momentarily "an uncomfortable sense of her innocence." Where only a few years before the Y would have been the first source of aid for a desperate woman, by the early 1960s, it was as meaningless and impersonal as the gymnasium to which it had been reduced. Are they really redeemable?. For in Teilhard there is no place for guilt and sorrow since human existence has had removed from it that taint of original sin which this story certainly assumes as real. It is also ironic that someone like Julian who does not have any money, has minimal college education, depends on his mother for financial support, and lives with his mother can think so highly of himself. Ed. 14244. Do you think that one needs to be Catholic to fully understand Everything That Rises Must Converge? This is a clear indication that all his feelings of supremacy over the people around him are misplaced and false. It is at this point of recognition that he sees his mothers eyes once more and interprets them. Because Julian interprets his mother's comment concerning her feelings for Caroline, her black nurse, as little more than a bigot's shibboleth, he is unable to understand her act of giving a penny to Carver, the small black boy in the story. The convergence of the hats and the personalities of the respective owners is a violent clash unpredictable and shocking. Nothing illustrates these changing times more readily than the issue of ladyhood, an issue which permeates both Everything That Rises Must Converge and Gone with the Wind. The startling decline of the once powerful, liberal, and comforting YWCA parallels the decline of the Old Southand the old Americaembodied in Julians mother. Irony refers to the difference or imbalance between the surface meaning of the words and the effects that they create. True, Scarlett creates for herself a magnificent outfit, one befitting a lady; but she does it only because she needs the $300 from Rhett. He is trapped by history, his mothers and his own. The towns leadership forgets about Colonel Griersons alleged grants to the town and the rest of the population forgets about his daughters welfare. Disillusioned with life, he wants to be no closer than three miles to his nearest neighbor, as he says. At the bus stop, he finds in himself an evil urge to break her spirit. Neither evil nor spirit here carries full meaning, for he intends only to express his impulse to embarrass her in public. In this way, she meets herself in the figure of an African American woman. Both of these stories interestingly use irony to entice and inform their readers. His only reaction to those about him is that of hate, but his expression of that hate is capable only of irritating, except in the case of that one person in his world who loves him, his mother. Ha, her pallid joke pointing, once again, to the pervasive acceptance of Mitchells rendering of the most painful era in southern history. Carver's mother reacts violently to what she assumes to be a gesture of condescension. Of course, the ugly hat which the mother has purchased for an outrageous $7.50, a hat identical to that of the large black woman, will help confirm that they are doubles and, thereby, will make a statement about racial equality. Such egotism is suggested by the name Godhigh borne by Julians grandmother. Summary and Analysis I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy, she asserts. What is shattering to us is the larger mystery of our own life which includes childishness but which our intellect cannot comprehend. While religious issues are not explicit in Everything That Rises Must Converge, OConnors vision of the sinful nature of the human race dominates the story. And Julian, a more subtle machine of his own making, is like a clock, capable of telling only the present confused moment. Then a black woman boards the bus wearing a hat which is identical to the hat worn by Mrs. Chestny. During the bus ride he indulges in his favorite pastime: Behind the newspaper Julian was withdrawing into the inner compartment of his mind where he spent most of his time. She is fiercely loyal to those whom she identifies as part of her proud tradition, especially her son. . She wears the same hat as Julians mothera hat that Julians mother had considered too expensivethus representing the Negros rise in Southern society. like mother, like daughter proverbial saying, O'brien, Edna The narrator has access to Julians inner thoughts, private motivations, and fantasies. Several works of literature employ irony as a major stylistic device. In "Everything That Rises Must Converge," meaning revolves around the experiences of assimilation, integration, and racial prejudices in the 1960s' Southern America. Julian and his mother utterly lack Scarletts imagination and resourcefulness, although they have both deluded themselves into thinking they do possess these qualities. Julian despises his Mother for her bigotry, but still feels loyal to her and agrees to chaperone her trips. The means are external to him, gratuitous, though compelling. It is Julian who recognizes that the black woman who hits Mrs. Chestny with her purse represents "the whole colored race which will no longer take your condescending pennies." Furthermore, Julian claims to have a first rate education but he does not have a job or a stable source of income. OConnor would answer with a resounding yes. 1960s. Julians mother refers to her as an old darky but also claims that there was no. It is far more to the point, however, that OConnor could readily assume that other American readers and movie-goers, of whatever faith or region, would be familiar with Mitchells story and would respond to echoes of it in her writings. "Everything That Rises Must Converge". Wishing to seem sympathetic, he attempts to strike up a conversation with the disinterested man. Until his mothers stroke, he has no impetus to change his outlook; consequently, it takes a disaster to move him. "Everything That Rises Must Converge" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor that addresses life in post-Civil War South. It was Flannery OConnors contention that the strange characters who populate her world are essentially no different from you and me. That Dixie Radcliff is a retarded child is plain. This wrongheaded strategy is seen when she tries to use the coin suggesting a new order in a way appropriate to the old. AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY In the presence of his mother dying, he sees her eyes, one moving as if unmoored, the other fixing on him and finding nothing. It is the final terrible mirror to his being which he has fleetingly seen reflected in the Negro woman on the bus. O'Connor also uses irony as a literary element to convey how Manley was not the good country person he pretended to be with Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga. Retrieved from https://studycorgi.com/irony-in-everything-that-rises-must-converge-and-a-rose-for-emily/, StudyCorgi. Everything That Rises Must Converge. Perrines Story and Structure: An Introduction to Fiction. Julian feels that his perceived understanding of African Americans puts him in a superior position as compared to his mother and other white Americans with racist tendencies. An African American woman gets on the bus with her young son and is forced to take a seat next to Julian. That failing, since his ancestral mansion is lost to him, the only pleasure he gets from life is meanness, specifically that of torturing his mother by reminding her of the new world she lives in. Once Emily becomes involved with lowly placed Homer, her stature in the society diminishes and she eventually becomes obscure to the town dwellers. The events of the story reveal him to be blinded by self-centeredness, arrogance, and resentment. Irony is a common fixture in literary works and its use is as old as literature itself. But words, even when poorly used or deliberately distorted, have a way of redounding upon the user. That is, Julian is, in effect, two presences in the story, the Julian who assumes himself aloof and detached from the human condition by virtue of his superior intellect and the Julian who destroys his mother before our eyes. What is the symbolism in Everything That Rises Must Converge? Everything you need. 18, 10. In her eyes, upholding her duty to her family and her family name is the key to goodness. A special issue of the journal Critique was devoted entirely to her writing in 1958. Chardin describes grace as Christic energy, an illuminating force operative on the minds of men. Flannery OConnors Everything That Rises Must Converge first appeared in New World Writing Number 17, in 1961, from which it was selected for inclusion in both Best American Short Stories of 1962 and Prize Stories of 1963: The O. Henry Awards. For Further Study Julian's mother is a product of her upbringing and views towards Negroes. Because Carver's mother is determined to exercise her legal rights, according to the letter of the law, she fails to exercise the "mutual forbearance" which O'Connor deems necessary to a successful resolution of racial tensions in the new South. Likewise, she lives in a poor neighborhood only because forty years before it was fashionable, whereas Scarlett would never fool herself into thinking that past glory had any true bearing on ones current situation.
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