Everything That Rises Must Converge by Flannery O’Connor
Plot Structure – I felt that most of the exposition took place in the beginning of the first page. For the rest of the story there was mostly rising action. Then, I felt that the climax came when Julian sees his mother crumple to the ground. The falling action and resolution are packaged together in the last couple paragraphs.
Character Terms: Julian – Protagonist, Round, Dynamic
Julian’s Mother – Antagonist, Round, Static
Woman on Bus – Foil Character, Flat, Static
Characterization: Most of the characterization is indirect. We learn about these characters mostly by their action and their dialogue. However, there is some direct characterization when the narrator tells us of what has shaped the mother into what she is today.
Point of View - Third Person Omniscient
Irony – The is situational irony in that Julian acts the way he does to spite his mother and he is glad to see her get “taught a lesson,” but actually this is what kills her.
Setting – The setting definitely played a role in this story. It is referenced to a few times throughout the story when the mother is telling Julian how fortunate he is to live in the neighborhood they do. We can also tell that this is an area where racial tension is still high among some of the people. The time that the story takes place is also very important because it is around the time of desegregation.
Symbolism – The Green Hat in the story symbolized the equality of the two women.
Themes – The struggle with the younger generation vs. the older generation
The issue of dealing with the conformities of society
Feeling regret after the loss of a loved one.
Important Quotes – Pg. 348 “Help, help!’ he shouted, but his voice was thin, scarcely a thread of sound. The lights drifted farther away the faster he ran and his feet moved numbly as if they carried him nowhere.
Julian's discription of his relationship with his mother, in his mind, was he viewed himself as the savior that must teach her a lesson about her outdated veiwpoints. He feels as though he needs to treat her like a "little girl" because of her ignorance of the changing times. It seems that the new generation always seems to know more about "everything" than the one before. Meaning, the old generations are not nessasarily ignorant to the changes, but they might not know any better becuse of the way they were brought up. "They (blacks) don't give a damn for your graciousness", Julian explains to his mother. The condescension of "enlightened" whites towards blacks and the resentment of blacks towards well-meaning whites will never change because "knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now ...
"Everything That Rises Must Converge," in a sense sums up O'Connor's overall philosophy or theology: that is, that everything which rises above the petty concerns of earth, above materialism, must converge somewhere in an ideal realm, that is, Heaven. The story concerns Julian and his mother and a series of misunderstandings between them. We find that Julian's mother is overweight, rude to other people, particularly to Black people, and very judgmental. Julian in turn spends a lot of his time judging his mother. The story focuses on a bus trip that Julian and his mother are taking to the Y's reducing class, and what happens in the course of that trip.
The setting in this story is significant because, the whole story is about how a young black boy is treated unfairly and sentenced to death because of something he did not do. It also deals with the emotions that this black boy faces because he has been treated unfairly by the white people.
Another example of situational irony comes when Julian's mother sits next to the black boy on the bus. Even though she was undeniably racist she had a spot in her heart for children, she labeled them all as “cute” and she placed black children in a even “cuter” category. Julian's mother attempts to play peek-a-boo with the child and the child's mother gets upset and yells at the boy. Julian's mother is trying to be kind to the boy yet his mother doesn't want him to talk to the white lady.
...s “And immediately the impulse to retreat, which had already assailed me several times leaped upon me with a sort of demoniac violence”(lines 34-35) in addition he says “If anyone expected me to go into that house and sit there alone for several hours, they were mistaken!”(line 36-37)
This imposed ignorance aimed to take away his natural sense of individual identity, and much of his human essence. As stated by Douglass, “slaves know as little of their ages as horses know of theirs, and it is the wish of most masters within my knowledge to keep their slaves thus ignorant.” (p. 1). Later on, as slave children grew older, slave owners prevented them from learning how to read and write, as literacy would awake their minds and would put them on a nearer condition of that the slave holder and overall, the white people. Such “threat” was well known by the slaveholders who understood that literacy could potentially put a slave in contact with readings that would give him arguments to question the right of whites to keep slaves. By keeping slaves illiterate, Southern slaveholders maintained control over how the rest of America perceived slavery. If slaves could not write, their side of the slavery story could never be told. Ignorance was the wall used by slave owners to hide their atrocities against innocent human beings; women, men and kids used as carnage during their entire
Characterization has been established as an important part of literature as it allows authors to fully develop characters’ personalities, allowing readers to understand the characters and their actions. In the poem Judith, the author uses adjective phrases to describe Judith and Holofernes’ personalities. The diverse contrast in their nature highlights the heroic qualities in Judith, which teach the reader to have faith in God, as that is where her courage and strength stems from. Therefore, characterization can further be used as a technique to establish major themes in a work of
Raymond Carver, the author of “Cathedral” uses characterization to describe the main character, the narrator’s development in the story upon meeting a blind man. This blind man, Robert, unintentionally changes the narrator’s perspective on life and on himself. The narrator first starts off as an arrogant, close minded individual who later opens his mind and is introduced to new perspectives of life. The most important element used in this writing is characterization because it makes the reader change perspectives on how the narrator develops throughout the story and deeply goes into a lot of detail to support the narrator’s development. good thesis, but the wording is a little bland and lifeless
Illiteracy was an instrumental tool used to deprive slaves in an attempt to keep them ignorant and manageable during the 1800’s. If slaves were to learn how to read, they could in turn be educated. The oppressing class during this time period realized that if slaves were able to become educated they could no longer be useful, for it would be increasingly difficult to exploit their services. The ability to read was the white man’s power over slaves. Douglass, realizing the situation of his enslavement, took advantage of his privileges and began to secretly learn how to read and write. As he become more proficient in English, Douglass began to gain a following of slaves who were willing to learn. He used his knowledge to covertly conduct a school where he would teach other slaves the alphabet and numbers. The experience of teaching others brought tremendous joy to Douglass who felt he was providing a better opportunity to his fellow slaves.
Fredrick Douglass asserted that, “Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave,” (“Abolition Through Education,” 2016). The truth in this statement posed a huge threat to the way of life of colonial Americans. Deprivation of education was used to assist in the enslavement of African Americans in developing America; in fact, prohibiting the education of African Americans quickly became the standard, as laws were increasingly put in place to oppress and limit colonial African Americans. During this time there was a widespread belief that if you were African American, then you were not fully a person which led to many basic rights being withheld, including the ability to get an education.
This story takes place in the south during the civil rights movement when people were trying to eliminate poverty and racism from the society that they lived in. There are four important characters in this story, and the two main ones are Julian and his mother. Julian is a recent college graduate who lives with his mother but knows “some day [he’ll] start making money” (Mays 448). Julian sees the world as ever changing during the civil rights movement and does not like or condone racism. Although this is true he subconsciously is small minded and petty just like his mother. His mother often makes racist remarks and will not find herself sitting next to a black African American adult. She often would bring up the topic of race to Julian “every few days like a train on an open track” (Mays 449). She also makes her son ride the bus with her to the YMCA because of the new changes due to the civil rights movement and in some ways this makes Julian mad. As they begin to board the bus Julian and his mother argue but quickly board. Shortly later a black woman and her son named Carver board. Carver sits next to Julian’s mother, she does not mind, and Carver’s mother sits next to Julian. Carver’s mother is an impatient woman who ironically wears the same hat as Julian’s mother. The hat in many ways is a symbol of the ever changing south during the civil rights movement. It symbolizes the social equality between
In conclusion, many examples are given throughout the novel that exemplifies all three types of irony: situational, verbal, and dramatic. There are many more examples, like Bernard wanting attention and John’s suicide. His suicide can be an example of irony, with the reader hoping that John (the revolutionist) might succeed, but John taking his own life. Irony plays a huge role in the book, pointing out that no society can be perfect and that some laws are broken by the creators themselves.
What is music? To some, music is only that of masters like Beethoven, Debussy, and Mozart. To some it is Busta Rhymes, Dr. Dre, or music groups like Moby. To the jazz aficionados, anything before 1940 or after 1960 is not music at all. So to examine how music affects our minds, thoughts, and spirits, it would be helpful to examine what music is made of. What are the basic building blocks of music, and how, through organization, do they come together to make music? To any sound, there are basic elements; loudness, pitch, contour, duration (or rhythm), timbre, spacial location, tempo, and reverberation. Just as a painter arranges lines into forms, our brains organize these attributes into higher level concepts like meter, harmony, and melody. So when we listen to music, we are actually perceiving multiple dimensions or attributes.
There are so many examples of situational irony that is clear throughout these stories Mr. Mallard being dead, Mama finally realizes that Maggie deserves the quilts because she understands her heritage better than Dee, Mathilde finding out she worked her whole life for nothing, and when Mr. Graves tells Tessie that Eva draws with her husband's family, Tessie is angry. Dramatic irony is everywhere as well. Louise dies from the shock of seeing her husband who is supposed to be dead and when Dee never wanted anything to do with her heritage until somebody was impressed by it.
Irony is a useful device for giving stories many unexpected twists and turns. In Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour," irony is used as an effective literary device. Situational irony is used to show the reader that what is expected to happen sometimes doesn't. Dramatic irony is used to clue the reader in on something that is happening that the characters in the story do not know about. Irony is used throughout Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" through the use of situational irony and the use of dramatic irony.