Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor

 Everything that Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor

 

 

There is an interesting pattern that I have discovered in many (most?) of Flannery O’Connor’s stories: they tend to have ambiguous endings: the last one I’ve read- The Comforts of Home, ends with a pistol shot, but I am not sure anybody died, even it was at close range and what happens next: it is actually so intriguing that there’s a hint of the impossible coming to being: the hero may get closer through tragedy to one he had loathed up to the end. Maybe nothing of the kind happens, but that’s just the point: we do not know…well, maybe others readers did get the whole point, I am left wondering. The same goes for The River, where two characters may die, but then again, maybe they are saved, or just get off by themselves, or the older helps the younger…maybe one survives and the other one doesn’t… there is drama to be sure and I can’t think of any easy, clear “happy ending”.

There is a lot of tension, conflict and struggle between various points of view: old and young, believer and non believer, conservative and liberal, even between races.

The same goes for this powerful, complex, if short story- we have the conflict between an old woman and her son… Julian and his mother have opposing views on race, attitude towards the black people and…hats.

His mother buys the hideous hat and in a funny twist of fate, or a clever turn of the writer, the same exact hat shows up on the head of a giant…Negro woman. Julian has an attitude which might puzzle; it made me feel a bit uneasy:

Why would he provoke his mother like that, when we already know –we had read that- he loves her?

On the bus he makes a point of sitting next to a black man and even trying to communicate with him...Why do that, when it makes no sense – you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.

Or can you?

First of all, in the psychology books I read, it is proven that humans learn and their brain keeps changing into old age. Then there is the other side of the coin:

Julian is the one with the moral, correct point of view and his mother is dead wrong.

Unfortunately, she might be just that: dead wrong.

The game is going too far, or her education, prejudice, limitations, low EQ –Emotional Intelligence, one or more of these reasons combine to make her commit a dreadful mistake:

She wants to give a penny to a young boy and his mother takes offence with a reaction that provokes what looks like a heart attack. I will not get into details that might spoil it for you.

 

The paradox is that the old woman means to do good: Hell is paved with good intentions”…

She does harm, not only to the other, but to herself.

The friendly fire gets Julian, who would be innocent, if he weren’t trying a bit too hard to teach his mother a few lessons…

 

“Shine bright like a diamond”…indeed these stories shine bright.