View source for Everything That Rises Must Converge (O'Connor)

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{{Summary
| Title = Everything That Rises Must Converge
| Subtitle = 
| Original Title = 
| Author = Flannery O'Connor
| Literary form = short story collection
| Year of publication = 1965
| Microsummary = In the segregation-era South, several people confronted their prejudices and mortality through violent encounters. Their experiences led to deaths, religious revelations, or profound personal changes.
| Emoji = 📈
}}

{{Start of text}}

== Short Summary ==

American South, 1960s. A young man accompanied his mother to her reducing class at the Y, resenting having to escort her.

{{Character
| Name = Julian
| Description = young intellectual man in his twenties, college graduate, self-righteous and condescending toward his mother, considers himself progressive on racial issues
| Emoji = 👨🏻‍🎓
}}

In another story, a farm owner encountered a violent girl in a doctor's waiting room who called her a wart hog from hell. The encounter deeply disturbed her, leading to an intense spiritual experience while watching her pigs.

{{Character
| Name = Mrs. Turpin
| Description = middle-aged white woman, farm owner, self-satisfied and judgmental, considers herself superior to others while maintaining a veneer of Christian virtue
| Emoji = 👩🏻
}}

{{Quote|
She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven.
}}

The collection concluded with the story of a displaced southerner living with his daughter in New York City.

{{Character
| Name = Tanner
| Description = elderly southern white man, 79 years old, stubborn and set in his ways, displaced from his home in Georgia to live with his daughter in New York
| Emoji = 👴🏻
}}

Unable to adapt to urban life and desperate to return home, he attempted to escape but fell down the stairs and died. Though initially buried in New York against his wishes, his daughter eventually had his body exhumed and returned to Georgia, where she found peace with her decision. Throughout the collection, characters confronted issues of racial prejudice, social change, and religious faith in the American South, often meeting violent or transformative ends.

== Detailed Summary by Stories ==

=== Everything That Rises Must Converge: A Mother and Son's Last Bus Ride ===

Every Wednesday night, Julian accompanied his mother to her reducing class at the Y. She needed to lose weight due to her blood pressure, but wouldn't ride the buses alone at night since they had been integrated. Though Julian resented having to take her, he did so out of obligation since she had supported him through college.

{{Character
| Name = Julian's Mother
| Description = middle-aged southern woman, traditional in her views, struggles to adapt to social changes, devoted to her son despite his contempt
| Emoji = 👩🏻
}}

{{Quote|
Everything that gave her pleasure was small and depressed him. She was almost ready to go, standing before the hall mirror, putting on her hat, while he appeared pinned to the door frame, waiting like Saint Sebastian.
}}

On the bus, Julian's mother attempted friendly conversation with other passengers while Julian seethed at her condescending attitude toward black people. When a well-dressed black woman and her son boarded the bus, Julian noticed with satisfaction that she wore the same hideous hat as his mother. The black woman became angry when Julian's mother tried to give her son a penny, striking her with her purse. Julian's mother collapsed from the shock, and as Julian helped her home, she became disoriented, calling for her long-dead nurse Caroline. She died of a stroke while Julian stood helplessly by.

=== Greenleaf: The Story of Mrs. May and the Bull ===

Mrs. May woke to find a bull eating her shrubbery outside her window. The animal belonged to the Greenleaf family, whose patriarch worked as her farmhand. She resented the success of the Greenleaf twins, who had married French wives and owned a successful dairy farm, while her own sons remained unmarried and unsuccessful.

{{Quote|
The bull had buried his head in her lap, like a wild tormented lover, before her expression changed. One of his horns sank until it pierced her heart and the other curved around her side.
}}

Despite her attempts to have the bull removed, it continued to appear on her property. One morning, she went with Mr. Greenleaf to shoot the bull, but instead found herself transfixed by its presence. The bull charged her, goring her through the heart, while Mr. Greenleaf finally shot it, too late to save her.

=== The Comforts of Home: Thomas's Fatal Mistake ===

Thomas lived with his mother, who had taken in a young woman named Sarah Ham despite his objections. Sarah was a troublemaker who had been in jail, and Thomas resented his mother's charitable impulses. He plotted to frame Sarah for theft by planting his gun in her purse, but his plan backfired tragically when he accidentally shot his mother instead.

=== The Enduring Chill: Asbury's Return Home to Die ===

Asbury Porter Fox returned home to die, convinced he had a fatal illness. He had failed as a writer in New York and blamed his mother for his shortcomings. While home, he requested a visit from a Jesuit priest, hoping to spite his Protestant mother.

{{Quote|
His image of himself shriveled until everything was black before him. He sat there paralyzed, aghast. He saw Norton at the telescope, all back and ears, saw his arm shoot up and wave frantically.
}}

The priest turned out to be a practical man who lectured Asbury on his religious ignorance rather than engaging in intellectual discourse. When Asbury finally received his diagnosis, he learned he had undulant fever from drinking unpasteurized milk - a chronic but non-fatal condition he would have to live with.

=== The Lame Shall Enter First: Sheppard's Misguided Charity ===

Sheppard, a widowed father, tried to reform Rufus Johnson, a troubled teenager with a clubfoot, while neglecting his own grieving son Norton. He believed in his ability to help Rufus through reason and kindness, dismissing the boy's religious beliefs as superstition.

{{Character
| Name = Sheppard
| Description = middle-aged widower with white hair, city recreational director, well-meaning but misguided in his attempts to help others
| Emoji = 👨🏻‍⚖️
}}

{{Character
| Name = Rufus Johnson
| Description = fourteen-year-old delinquent boy with a clubfoot, highly intelligent but rebellious, resists Sheppard's attempts to reform him
| Emoji = 👦🏻
}}

{{Character
| Name = Norton
| Description = ten-year-old boy, Sheppard's son, grieving his dead mother, emotionally neglected by his father
| Emoji = 👦🏻
}}

{{Quote|
The vision failed him before he could decipher it. The girl's face was stiff with outrage. 'God, kid,' Johnson said in a cracked voice, 'how do you stand it?' His face was stiff with outrage.
}}

Rufus continued his criminal behavior despite Sheppard's efforts, eventually being arrested. When confronted, he accused Sheppard of inappropriate behavior, destroying the man's reputation. Meanwhile, Norton, influenced by Rufus's talk of heaven, hanged himself trying to join his dead mother, leaving Sheppard to face his failure as a father.

=== Revelation: Mrs. Turpin's Vision in the Doctor's Office ===

Mrs. Turpin sat in a doctor's waiting room, mentally categorizing people by class and race. She engaged in conversation with a well-dressed woman while the woman's daughter, Mary Grace, glared at her with intense hostility.

{{Character
| Name = Mary Grace
| Description = young college student with acne, angry and disturbed, acts as an instrument of revelation for Mrs. Turpin
| Emoji = 👩🏻‍🎓
}}

Suddenly, Mary Grace threw a book at Mrs. Turpin and attacked her, telling her to go back to hell. After the incident, Mrs. Turpin was deeply shaken and questioned her self-righteousness. That evening, while hosing down her hogs, she received a vision of souls ascending to heaven, with people like herself at the end of the procession, behind those she had considered beneath her.

{{Quote|
A visionary light settled in her eyes. She saw the streak as a vast swinging bridge extending upward from the earth through a field of living fire. Upon it a vast horde of souls were rumbling toward heaven.
}}

=== Parker's Back: A Story of Faith, Art, and Redemption ===

O.E. Parker, covered in tattoos, was married to Sarah Ruth, a plain, deeply religious woman who disapproved of his tattoos as vanity. Despite his confusion about why he stayed with her, Parker found himself drawn to get another tattoo after a near-death experience with his tractor.

{{Character
| Name = O.E. Parker (Obadiah Elihue)
| Description = twenty-eight-year-old man covered in tattoos, former sailor, restless and searching for meaning, married to a deeply religious woman
| Emoji = 👨🏻
}}

{{Character
| Name = Sarah Ruth
| Description = young woman, Parker's wife, extremely religious, plain-looking with sharp features, judgmental and strict in her beliefs
| Emoji = 👩🏻
}}

{{Quote|
The eyes that were now forever on his back were eyes to be obeyed. He was as certain of it as he had ever been of anything. Throughout his life, grumbling and sometimes cursing, often afraid, he had obeyed.
}}

He decided to get a Byzantine Christ tattooed on his back, believing this would finally impress Sarah Ruth. Instead, when he showed it to her, she was horrified, calling it idolatry, and beat him with a broom. Parker ended up crying against a tree, caught between his spiritual awakening and his wife's rejection.

=== Judgment Day: Tanner's Final Journey Home ===

Tanner, an elderly southerner, lived unhappily with his daughter in New York City. He longed to return to Georgia, where he had lived in a shack with his black friend Coleman. His daughter had brought him north against his wishes, promising to send his body back home for burial when he died.

Tanner attempted to befriend his black neighbor, addressing him as 'Preacher,' but the man, an actor, was offended by Tanner's racist assumptions. After a violent confrontation, Tanner became determined to return to Georgia. He tried to escape but fell down the stairs and died. Despite his daughter initially burying him in New York, she eventually had his body sent home to Georgia when she couldn't sleep at night.

{{End of text}}