Everything That Rises Must Converge

Morality is a central theme in “Everything That Rises Must Converge”; however, right and wrong are not necessarily clearly marked. O’Connor, well-known for her morally ambiguous characters, frequently explores the complexity of morality and how people are simultaneously good and bad. Julian and his mother are an excellent example of this dichotomy. Each believes completely in their own moral superiority, yet both are flawed characters and have their own moral shortcomings. Although O’Connor pits them against one another in a typical display of right vs. wrong, neither character can be considered purely moral.

Julian’s mother is the story’s antagonist and is mostly portrayed as being in the moral wrong, particularly in the eyes of her son. She is explicitly racist, arguing that life was better for Black people when they were enslaved and refusing to ride the integrated buses alone. However, there is also something innocent and even childlike about her. Julian notes that his mother’s eyes remained “as innocent and untouched by experience as they must have been when she was ten” (184) and suggests that she is more or less a product of her circumstances, saying “if she had started from any of the right premises, more might have been expected of her” (189).