Everything That Rises Must Converge

I recently finished reading the short story Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor. It takes place in the 1960’s not too long after bus integration in a southern city. The story covers a short period of time, probably no more than half an hour, of a mother and her grown up son trip from their house to downtown.

 The bulk of the story develops inside of the bus as the main characters observe the different individuals that share their ride and react to them. Mother and son have opposing views to integration and civil rights. The mother grew up in a plantation, though she is poor now, and sticks to the old practices. The son, a want to be writer, sees himself as progressive and open minded.

            The author follows both characters but focuses mostly on the feelings of the son who is ashamed of his mother’s patronizing tone to the African-American riders. In the short period of time, we see all the different characters, not just the mother and son, acting meanly and selfishly towards each other, which prevents the reader from sympathizing with any of them.  Ms. O’Connor does a great job describing the essence of characters with just a few reactions to what is going on.

             Although this story is contemporary to To Kill A Mockingbird, it feels very different. In this short story there are no heroes, no one to look up to, and no one with redeeming qualities.

            I would recommend this story to anyone interested in understanding the problems of integration in the South and very good writing.