Flannery O'Connor's short story "Everything That Rises Must Converge"
             is set during the early 1960's in the South. Not only was this the time of
             integration, but also, in a sense, the South's moral renaissance - a time
             to let go of the primitive prejudice and evolve into a tolerant society.
             However, a generations-long belief of superiority could not be changed
             overnight, and it was the responsibility of progressive individuals to
             teach and provoke this new state of mind. Julian, the main character of
             this story, has yet to master this technique. Instead, he constantly
             berates his old-fashioned mother at her inability to embrace integration,
             and yet he is unable to accept her. Through incorporating different kinds
             irony, O'Connor condemns self-destructive hypocrisy by examining the
             dysfunctional relationship between Julian and his mother during the era of
             O'Conner uses situational irony to explore Julian's morally
             distinguished and mentally superior attitude towards his mother. In fact,
             Julian turns out to be the opposite. Every Wednesday night, Julian is
             "forced" to take his mother to a weight-loss class at the Y in order to
             lower her blood pressure. She is too fearful to ride the buses by herself
             now that they have been integrated. Julian is disgusted by her small-minded
             views, especially those of racism, and despises every moment with her.
             When she is almost ready to go, he stands "waiting like Saint Sebastian for
             the arrows to begin piercing him" (445). The irony in this is that Julian
             is far from a saint. His mind is filled with impure thoughts of how to
             torment his mother to near mortality. He fantasizes about his mother
             learning her lesson of prejudice by being rushed to the hospital only to
             have a black doctor treat her, and of bringing home a black woman just to
             watch her blood boil. Admittedly, most would agree that racism is wrong,
             however, what's worse is a hypocrite. A r...