Everything That Rises Must Converge By Flannery O Connor Summary
623 Words3 Pages
The moment of revelation in Flannery O’Connor’s Everything That Rises Must Converge occurs after Julian vituperates his mother for having antiquated values; reminiscent of the Old South, she prefers racial segregation. Until this point, Julian’s tone and diction towards his mother is combative and confrontational. Upon noticing a change in his mother’s appearance, however, Julian’s demeanor becomes childlike and endearing. This revelation also serves as the narrative’s dramatic irony; Julian continues the verbal assault on his mother without realizing that her behaviour has changed as a result of the onset of a stroke. Further, the story is set mainly on a bus, introducing the motif of travelling. After the mother’s stroke, the narrator uses nautical imagery in describing the final scene. The conclusion of O’Connor’s short story is punctuated by a change in imagery, tone and diction, and motif, paralleling Julian’s moment of revelation. After his mother is thwarted by a swinging red pocketbook, Julian “saw no reason to let the lesson she had had go” and that “[s]he might as well be made to understand what had happened to her” (637). Julian tells his mother that her assailant “was [her] black double” (637). His final tirade begins by telling his mother “the whole colored…show more content… Half of the plot is set on a bus. After leaving the bus, Julian and his mother continue their journey on foot until she is thwarted by the black woman’s purse. Once Julian realizes his mother is unwell, the narrator begins to introduce nautical imagery, stating “a tide of darkness seemed to be sweeping her from him” (637). Once Julian sees his mother’s face is distorted, her eye, described by the narrator “had become unmoored”. As Julian tries to summon help, the narrator states that “[t]he lights drifted farther away” (638). The journey ends as “the tide of darkness seemed to sweep him back to her” as Julian enters “into the world of guilt and sorrow”