| Everything That Rises Must Converge | |
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First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | Flannery O'Connor |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Short stories |
| Publisher | Farrar Straus Giroux |
| Publication date | January 1965 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 269 pp |
| ISBN | 0-374-15012-5 |
Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of short stories written by Flannery O'Connor during her final illness. The title of the collection and of the short story of the same name is taken from a passage from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin.[1][2] The collection was published posthumously in 1965. It includes an introduction by Robert Fitzgerald, and nine stories.
In the story after which the work is titled, human weaknesses are exposed and important moral questions are explored through everyday situations. Though given a state of illness from symptoms of lupus, an arising amount of critique claiming her works to be "without fundamentals" and based on "reclusive" moral views,[3] she indeed was "very much an insider."[4] In the story, Julian, an arrogant young man takes a fateful bus trip with his mother. The mother doesn’t like to ride the recently racially integrated bus alone because of the teachings of her parents. The mother is stuck in the mindset she grew up with, and Julian doesn't understand this. Their relationship shows tensions when a black mother and son enter the bus. Through irony, the blindness and ignorance of the characters are exposed. This story can be read in terms of (a) racial tensions in a newly integrated American climate, (b) generational changes in cultural perspectives, or (c) a vignette of a moment before tragedy strikes. In the case of reading (a) and (b), these could be attributed to O'Connor's own life in Georgia. The title Everything That Rises Must Converge refers to a work by the French philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin titled the "Omega Point": "Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge."[5]
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