"Everything that Rises Must Converge" takes place in the southern United States. Julian, a young college educated southerner struggles with his financial dependence on his mother, depression, personal failures, and his self -denial of his own cultural prejudices.
             Julian's personal conflicts with his mother, a relic of the old south genteel attitude, stand in contrast to his self image of being the "new southerner", morally superior in education and outlook Julian sees himself as enlightened in regards to race because "in spite of all her foolish views, he was free of prejudice and unafraid to face facts". Julian resents his mother's views on class consciousness, even while secretly accepting them. His feeling about his family's former social position is expressed by his thoughts about his family's former mansion, "he never spoke of it without contempt or thought of it without longing".
             Julian's true prejudices emerge as he escorts his mother to her weight reducing class on the city bus. In an effort to demonstrate his contempt for his mother, he sits beside Negroes on the bus, in direct opposition to his mother's wishes. While riding the bus he reminisces on his attempts to make Negro friends, with some of the "better types" such as Negro professors, lawyers, or ministers in an effort to "teach her a lesson". Julian does not consciously realize that in using people of other races for his own ends in defiance of his mother, he is also guilty of prejudice, and in fact shares many of the same outlooks and prejudices of his mother. He experiences vicious pleasure when a Negro woman boards the bus wearing the same hat as his mother. Seeing his mother's misery and thinking "your punishment exactly fits your pettiness", Julian fails to see his own pettiness.
             The story escalates when Julian's mother attempts to give a
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