Everything That Rises Must Converge Analysis

“Everything that Rises Must Converge” begins with Julian waiting to escort his mother, Mrs. Chestny, to her “reducing class” at the YMCA. Since the recent integration of the black and white races in the American South, Julian’s mother refuses to ride the bus alone. When Julian and his mother board the bus, there are no African Americans on board. Mrs. Chestny observes, “I see we have the bus to ourselves.” The bus represents pre- and post-integrated Southern society in that the all-white bus gradually takes on more black passengers who sit beside the whites. At one point in the narrative, a black mother and her son, Carver, sit beside Julian and his mother, respectively. The story ends with a violent convergence between Mrs. Chestny and Carver’s
However, the source of this pride differs between the two of them; Mrs. Chestny’s pride is rooted in the past by her lineage and her primary flaw is racism that is borne from a romanticized view of slavery and segregation; because Julian’s grand-grandfather was a “former governor” of the state and her grandfather, owned a “plantation and had two hundred slaves,” she sees herself and her son as part of Southern aristocracy, despite their modest apartment in a once fashionable neighbourhood. As such, she strengthens her connection to the past by practicing class-conscious mannerisms in a world where the “bottom rail is on the top.” The hat initially represents her resistance to change; she wears the hat “like a banner of her imaginary dignity.” The reason she bought the hat is because she prides herself on looking distinctive; she “won’t meet [herself] coming and going.” O’Connor uses clothing as a symbol of class distinction; Mrs. Chestny is “one of the few members of the Y…who [arrives] in hat and gloves” and she is embarrassed when Julian removes his tie in public. The purchase of the hat becomes ironic because Carver’s mother enters the bus wearing the same hat; the hat, initially symbolizing Mrs. Chestny’s distinction, is now a symbol of the changing cultural and political landscape of the South, which sees both Mrs. Chestny
He attempts to engage the “better types” of African American bus passengers, not out of any compassion for their struggle, but as an affront to his mother’s beliefs. He fantasizes about his mother’s “ultimate horror”–bringing home a “beautiful suspiciously Negroid