Response Journal for "Everything That Rises Must Converge" by Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O'Connor's "Everything that Rises Must Converge" tells the story of a middle-aged white woman, who is the descendant of a southern aristocratic slave-holding family. Mrs. Chestny is on a journey to the YWCA to attend a "reducing class" designed to lower her blood pressure. She insists that her son Julian, a supposed intellectual, educated at "only a third-rate college", and hypocritically consumed with contempt for his mother's racial prejudice, escort her to the Y. …

…to a little black boy. The story is masterfully written, and brimming with insight into the racial bigotry that faced the Alabama African American community at the time, and the egotistic attitudes of the white upper class. Though the story is expressed from a third person omniscient narrative point of view, the true intentions and thoughts of the character describing the events are misleading. Nevertheless, "Everything That Rises Must Converge" is a truly wonderful tale.